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"It Was Always Going to Happen": Is Akihabara Worth It Anymore, According to Japanese Otaku

「元々電気街から様変わりしたんだから仕方ない」— 秋葉原は今も行く価値があるか、日本人のコメント欄の総意

TokyoNakanoOsakaAkihabaraIkebukuro
"It Was Always Going to Happen": Is Akihabara Worth It Anymore, According to Japanese Otaku

The most-liked comment (93 likes) under a Japanese explainer titled "Why the otaku disappeared from Akiba" is a shrug: "It changed from an electronics town into an anime-otaku town in the first place, so this was always going to happen." Of the 132 comments we read, 20 are elegies for the parts-and-junk-shop era, 16 are about what the maid cafés have turned into — "you can't tell them apart from the sex trade any more, so I've got too scared to go in" — and 9 name somewhere else to go instead. The pushback is worth reading too: one commenter tells the nostalgics the shops closed because they stopped building their own PCs, and Radio Kaikan still does the job.

“It changed from an electronics town into an anime-otaku town in the first place, so this was always going to happen.”

元々電気街からアニメ系のオタクの町に様変わりしたんだから仕方ないよね

— @SK-wo8ep
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What locals said (excerpted from 149)

  • Everything before Densha Otoko and the stabbings was fun. After that, I'll say no more. When the Di Gi Charat sign came down, you really felt the era turn.

    電車男・通り魔事件以前が楽しかった 以降は以下省略 デジ子の看板がなくなったのが時代の流れを感じた

    — @OASIS-202033 likes

  • 7:26 — I was thrown when I heard primary school kids on the street going "you know that Kato incident back then…". Lads, you weren't even born.

    7:26 路上で小学生が「あの時の加藤の事件がさぁ！」とか語ってて困惑した。お前ら生まれてないやろ。

    — @mf943956 likes

  • I was never an otaku, but I was going there for self-build PC parts even before Densha Otoko… It got turned into a way to make money rather than anything cultural, and that's what brought on the decline.

    オタクではなかったけど電車男前から自作PCでよく通った・・・ 文化という精神的な事より金儲けのネタにされてしまって逆に衰退を生み出してしまっている。

    — @neriwasa0822 likes

  • I think it's a textbook case of redevelopment costing a district its sense of direction. The shops in those cramped multi-tenant buildings were what made Akiba's culture.

    再開発によって街づくりの方向性を失なった典型例だと思う 雑居ビルの店が秋葉の文化をつくってたんだなと

    — @ひややっこ-g1i3 likes

  • Official distributors took over PC parts, so you stopped getting early releases and interesting imports, and mail order became the better option. On top of that the prices got padded out. They killed the self-build culture themselves — you can't even laugh.

    PCパーツは正規代理店が独占するようになってフライング販売や面白いパーツが輸入されなくなって通販で良くなっちゃった おまけに値段もくっそ上積みされてるし自分らでPC自作文化を潰してて草も生えない

    — @deathtanaka79609 likes

  • As long as Radio Kaikan is still standing, it's genuinely useful for buying figures and plastic models. The problem is the resellers turning up when you'd forgotten about them.

    ラジオ会館が残ってる限り フィギュアやプラモの買い物にはまだ重宝している 問題は忘れた頃に転売ヤーがくることだな

    — @HIDE-oe1lv26 likes

  • The maids standing at fixed intervals doing nothing must be a completely different thing from the maids back then.

    一定間隔に棒立ちのメイドさんたちは当時のメイドさんたちとは別物なんだろうなって

    — @とらしま-b8o33 likes

  • Recent maid cafés are indistinguishable from the sex trade and I've got too scared to go in. All I want is somewhere to rest while a maid brings me tea…

    最近のメイド喫茶は風俗系と見分けがつかなくて怖くて入れなくなってしまった メイドさんがお茶持ってきてくれるだけのとこで休みたいだけなのに…

    — @rzgsyegedme7 likes

  • Once it filled up with maid cafés and underground idols, I stopped wanting to go.

    メイドカフェや地下アイドルまみれになってから行くのが嫌になった。

    — @shamo_ch10 likes

  • A lot of them came over from Kabukicho, so it's an entirely different thing.

    歌舞伎町から流れてきたのが多いから全くの別物。

    — @40imai410 likes

  • Isn't Akihabara now just a street of the sex trade and semi-criminal outfits…?

    今の秋葉原って風俗と半グレの街じゃない…？

    — @志乃-k3r51 likes

  • For card players it was the home of card shops as well. Carrying your deck on your back, doing the rounds of several shops after work, going to events at the weekend — it was so much fun. I really hope it survives and keeps Akiba going.

    カードゲーマーとしてはカドショの聖地でもあった デッキ背負って、仕事帰りに何件もハシゴしたり、休日にイベント参加したりするのがとても楽しかった どうか生き残ってアキバを支えてほしい

    — @lagemarit2446 likes

  • So many "it was better in the old days" people here. The shops shrank because you lot stopped building your own PCs and doing radio. I still think it works fine as an otaku town.

    昔は良かった系の人が沢山。 君たちが自作PCや無線なんかをやらなくなったから店が減ったんじゃん。 まだオタクの街としては機能してると思うけど。

    — @山田太郎-e2u8x7 likes

  • Personally I wasn't sold on the anime boom that came in as the radio shops and dodgy PC stores were disappearing either, so to me it's just the times moving on. It was a hobbyists' town to begin with, and honestly I don't think the image of it as an otaku town has changed — there's just less of it. It was good around the launch of Windows 98. I quite liked finishing up by looking at the basketball court before heading home.

    自分的にはラジオ関係、怪しいPCショップが減ったアニメブームも正直・・・だったから時代の流れってだけで そもそもはマニアの街だし、今も別に減っただけでオタクの街ってイメージは別に変ってはいないかなー Win98発売位の頃は良かった。最後にバスケコート見て帰るの割と好きだったな

    — @rizna36362 likes

  • Everyone thought "this isn't Akiba any more" back when it was turned into a rubbish town of moe-obsessed almost-otaku with no interest in subculture, so it's a bit late now. I want the Akihabara Electric Town back… Asagaya, Nakano and Kichijoji were the otaku places to begin with, weren't they.

    ここはもう秋葉じゃないはくそみたいな「萌え萌えでサブカルチャーに興味ないオタク（未満）の街」にした時に色んな人が思ったことだから今更なんだ。 秋葉原電気街を返して欲しいのよね…… 元々は阿佐ヶ谷とか中野とか吉祥寺のほうがオタだったじゃねーか

    — @とっかり4 likes

Where locals go instead

  • The otaku town is Ikebukuro now, isn't it… it hurts.

    今やヲタクの街は池袋になってるもんね…切実ゥ…

    — @suke-nichi-rainbow9 likes

  • I hope Nakano doesn't end up like this. I haven't been for a while — maybe I'll go. Nakano, not Akiba.

    中野がこうならない事を祈る、 暫く行ってないから行くか 秋葉でなく中野に

    — @哲哉渡邊5 likes

  • Around Ota Road in Osaka's Nipponbashi, the look of the late 1990s is still very much there. The con-cafés aren't pushing anything like as hard, either. That said, the subculture shops shrink year by year and apartment blocks go up on the sites, so losing that old scenery is probably only a matter of time…

    大阪日本橋の特にオタロード周辺は20世紀末の面影を色濃く残していますね。 コンカフェ等の営業もそこまで強くありません。 ただ、年々サブカル系の店舗が減り、跡地にマンションなどが建ち並ぶ状況で、古き良き情景が失われていくのは時間の問題かもしれませんね…。

    — @じろうコマ-q7m10 likes

Places named in this article

  • Akihabara Radio Kaikan秋葉原ラジオ会館Outside the Electric Town exit, Akihabara

    The one building the comments still defend: "as long as Radio Kaikan is there it's still useful for figures and plastic models" (26 likes). The same commenter's complaint is resellers, not the shops.

  • Nakano (Nakano Broadway)中野・中野ブロードウェイNakano, west Tokyo

    "I hope Nakano doesn't end up like this. I haven't been in a while — maybe I'll go. Nakano, not Akiba" (5 likes). Another commenter says Nakano, Asagaya and Kichijoji were the otaku towns before Akihabara ever was.

  • Ikebukuro池袋North-west Tokyo

    "The otaku town is Ikebukuro now, isn't it" (9 likes) — the most-liked instead in the thread.

  • Ota Road, Nipponbashi日本橋 オタロードNipponbashi / Den Den Town, Osaka

    "Around Ota Road in Osaka's Nipponbashi you can still feel the turn-of-the-century Akiba, and the con-cafés aren't as pushy" (10 likes) — with the caveat that its subculture shops are being replaced by apartment blocks year by year.

Named in the source comments — hours, prices, and openings change, so check each map listing before you go.

FAQ

Is Akihabara still worth visiting?
Japanese commenters split by what you want from it. For figures, models and card shops, yes — the most-liked defence (26 likes) is that Radio Kaikan still does the job, and a card player calls Akihabara the home of card shops. For the electronics and junk-shop browsing it was famous for, the consensus is no: that trade moved online years ago.
What happened to Akihabara's electronics shops?
The comments blame mail order and redevelopment rather than any single event. One says official distributors took over the parts trade so nothing unusual gets imported, and buying online became easier and cheaper (9 likes). One pushes back at the nostalgia (7 likes): "the shops shrank because you lot stopped building your own PCs." Another calls the redevelopment a textbook loss of direction — the culture lived in the small multi-tenant buildings.
Are Akihabara's maid cafés still like they used to be?
Sixteen of the comments we read are about this, and the tone is wary. "Recent maid cafés are indistinguishable from the sex trade and I've got too scared to go in — I only wanted somewhere to rest while a maid brings me tea" (7 likes). Another (33 likes) says the maids standing at fixed intervals handing out flyers are a different thing entirely from the maids of the 2000s.
Where do Japanese otaku go instead of Akihabara?
Three places come up. Ikebukuro is called the otaku town now (9 likes). Nakano is the one people say they hope stays as it is. And in Osaka, Ota Road in Nipponbashi is described as keeping the turn-of-the-century feel with less aggressive con-café touting (10 likes), though commenters expect that to erode too.
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