ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates how promoting otaku as part of Cool Japan coincided with policing "weird otaku" on the streets of Akihabara in the mid-2000s. Akihabara is an area located in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. Well known for stores selling home appliances, personal electronics, and computers, Akihabara was, for much of the second half of the twentieth century, called the "Electric Town". The redevelopment of Akihabara, also known as the Crossfield Project, began in 2002 and included major players such as Kajima, NTT DoCoMo Urban Development, and Daibiru. Further away from the redevelopment zone, on the other side of Chuo-dori, are smaller and more diverse stores in narrow alleys, basements, and backrooms, which are associated with niche obsessions. The revaluation of otaku as drivers of cultural innovation came at a time when many in Japan were looking to manga/anime as not only economic resources but also as potentially political ones.
