Instant noodles were invented in 1958 by a man called Momofuku Ando in Osaka. He wanted to make a meal that anyone could cook with just hot water. He dried the noodles by frying them so they cooked in a few minutes. Today, around 100 billion packets of instant noodles are eaten every year around the world.
Karaoke was invented in the 1970s in the city of Kobe. The word means 'empty orchestra' - 'kara' for empty, 'oke' from 'orchestra'. The idea was to play just the music of a song so people could sing the words themselves. Now there are karaoke machines in homes, schools and family rooms in countries everywhere.
Emoji were invented in 1999 by Shigetaka Kurita, who worked for a Japanese phone company. He wanted a quick way for people to add feelings to their messages. He drew 176 little pictures - the very first emoji set. The word 'emoji' is Japanese: 'e' means picture and 'moji' means character.
Japan is famous for taking an idea and making it smaller, neater and easier to use. The Walkman (the first portable music player), the cassette tape, and many of the games you'll know from older brothers and sisters - Pokémon, Mario, Sonic - were all created in Japan.