ABSTRACT
Tokyo’s Akihabara neighborhood has been long known as an “Electric Town” selling cutting-edge technologies made in Japan. However, from the early 2000s, a competing image of Akihabara began to take hold: the “Holy Land of Otaku.” Although a contested word, otaku in general usage overlaps with “fan” and is employed in Japan to identify people who are obsessive about something, often manga, anime, and computer/console games. If Akihabara was once a symbol of the industrial output of “Japan, Inc.,” it is now a symbol of the creative output of “Cool Japan” (a national image based on the globalization of certain popular culture products). As Akihabara became a tourist destination and showcase for “Cool Japan,” the people gathering there faced increased scrutiny. Based on participant observation conducted in Akihabara, this chapter provides a historical snapshot of how otaku were problematically incorporated into “Cool Japan.” In brief, promoting otaku as part of Cool Japan coincided with policing “weird otaku.” The snapshot here comes primarily from the position of a fieldworker engaged in regular interactions and long-term relations with people in Akihabara; this perspective is supplemented with interviews with politicians and storeowners, participation in and observation of various events, and media analysis.
