Japan 9: Otaku

"Masahiko is seventeen," Mitsuko said. "He is a 'pathological-techno-fetishist with-social-deficit,'" this last all strung together like one word, indicating a concept that taxed the lexicon of the ear-clips. Chia wondered briefly if it would be worth running it through her Sandbenders, whose translation functions updated automatically whenever she ported.

"A what?"

"Otaku," Mitsuko said carefully in Japanese. The translation burped its clumsy word string again.

"Oh," Chia said, "we have those, We even use the same word."

"I think that in America they are not the same," Mitsuko said.

William Gibson, Idoru

Today we visited Akihabara district in Tokyo - Otaku City, as it were. Otaku is often used by English speakers as a synonym for "nerd" or "geek", with a specific slant toward fans of anime or manga, but in Japanese, it's not entirely the same thing.

The word "otaku" literally means "your home" - loosely translated, an otaku is someone who never leaves the house. The term came into common usage in Japan during the 80s, and refers to a Japanese subculture predominantly made up of young males who have turned inward, away from the pressures to conform and succeed that dominate the Japanese educational system, and ultimately, Japanese society. In place of scholastic success and social interaction, otaku choose to obsessively focus on a particular area of esoteric knowledge.

Although many otaku do concentrate on aspects of pop culture like manga, or the Mobile Suit Gundam series or other anime, an otaku could just as easily choose to become an expert in variant types of World War II Sherman tanks - it is the obsessive nature of their interest, and the not entirely healthy manner in which it replaces everyday life, that characterizes an otaku.

Akihabara reflects all of these aspects of being an otaku, but showcases the subculture in a way which would probably not be acceptable in the Western world.  The ubiquitous advertising, and the action figures, videos and games that it promotes, are all intensely sexualized in an exaggerated and somewhat fetishistic manner.

If you turn off the main thoroughfares, the other side of Akihabara becomes visible.  Narrow corridors are lined with diminutive shops specializing in whatever items might catch the eye of a passing otaku. These miniature storefronts are not much larger than an office desk, with an opening just large enough for the proprietor to keep watch over his stock, such as hundreds of kinds of LEDs, or electrical connectors of every shape and size.

Akihabara also originated the maid cafe, another Japanese institution which might not translate well to the Western world.  In a maid cafe, patrons are served by young women dressed in exaggerated French maid costumes - with the accent on the phrase "served".  The maids treat their customers as the masters of their household rather than as paying customers, with services such as spoon feeding or kneeling by the table to stir cream or sugar into coffee.

It may be significant that Akihabara Station was the only place in Tokyo with bilingual Japanese - English warnings on the escalators to beware of upskirt photographs.  This would seem to be an unfortunate indicator that some otaku have chosen to focus (so to speak) on something other than electronics or giants robots.

- Sid