Akihabara is the area of Tokyo famous for its electronics shops, and you can find whatever you’re looking for there, whether it’s the newest computer gadget or fifteen-year-old software for your Sega Mega Drive game console. Akiba is also the “Mecca” of otaku culture in the world, with hundreds of doujinshi shops, maid cafes and other companies selling products of interest to Japan’s booming otaku generation. Take a stroll down the main street on a Sunday — they close the whole street down since there’s so much foot traffic — and you’ll see a spectacle like no other, with thousands of fans laughing, shopping or dancing while cosplaying their favorite anime characters, including more than a few males dressed up like female characters. Lately some less-than-savory elements have been showing up at Akiba, including up-and-coming bikini idols providing some, ahem, “fan service” for passersby with camera phones to increase their popularity, which tends to tarnish the area’s image as a fun playground for nerdy types. As the fans get rowdier, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police have been increasing their patrols in the region, walking around and making grim faces at fans who look like they’re about to start a “guerilla live” or sudden performance of anime karaoke along the side of the street. They’ve been checking the belongings of otaku shoppers, too, ostensibly to make sure they don’t have any knives, which seems silly, given the extremely innocuous nature of most otaku types — most of us wouldn’t hurt a fly outside of a video game. There’ve been a lot of theories put forth about the crackdown on geekish activities, including that it’s a lot safer to mess with the “A-boys” then, say, yakuza gangsters over in Kabuki-cho.
