is a common name for the area around

Akihabara Station is a railway station in Tokyo's Chiyoda ward. It is at the center of the Akihabara shopping district specializing in electronic goods. Lines Akihabara Station is served by the following lines. JR East: * Tōhoku Main Line ** Keihin-Tohoku ...

in the

Chiyoda ward is a special ward located in central Tokyo, Japan. It is known as Chiyoda City in English.Profile ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, Japan. Administratively, the area called Akihabara mainly belongs to the and Kanda-Sakumachō districts in Chiyoda. There exists an administrative district called Akihabara in the

Taitō is a special ward located in Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. In English, it is known as Taitō City. As of May 1, 2015, the ward has an estimated population of 186,276, and a population density of 18,420 persons per km2. The total area is . Thi ...

ward further north of Akihabara Station, but it is not the place people generally refer to as Akihabara. The name Akihabara is a shortening of , which ultimately comes from , named after a fire-controlling deity of a firefighting shrine built after the area was destroyed by a fire in 1869.Cybriwsky, Roman. ''Historical dictionary of Tokyo.''Scarecrow Press, 2011. Akihabara gained the nickname shortly after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

for being a major shopping center for household electronic goods and the post-war black market.Nobuoka, Jakob. "User innovation and creative consumption in Japanese culture industries: The case of Akihabara, Tokyo." ''Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography'' 92.3 (2010): 205–218.Yamada, Kazuhito. ''Entrepreneurship in Akihabara.'' Akihabara is considered by many to be the center of modern

Japanese popular culture Japanese popular culture includes Japanese cinema, cuisine, television programs, anime, manga, video games, music, and doujinshi, all of which retain older artistic and literary traditions; many of their themes and styles of presentation can be ...

and a major shopping district for

video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedbac ...

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

, manga,

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

and computer-related goods. Icons from popular anime and manga are displayed prominently on the shops in the area, and numerous

maid café are a subcategory of cosplay restaurants found predominantly in Japan. In these cafés, waitresses, dressed in maid costumes, act as servants, and treat customers as masters (and mistresses) in a private home, rather than as café patrons. The f ...

s and some arcades are found throughout the district.

Geography

The main area of Akihabara is located on a street just west of

, where most of the major shops are situated. Most of the electronics shops are just west of the station, and the anime and manga shops and the cosplay cafés are north of them. As mentioned above, the area called Akihabara now ranges over some districts in Chiyoda ward: , , and . There exists an administrative district called Akihabara in the

ward further north of the station, but it is not the place which people generally refer to as Akihabara. It borders on Sotokanda in between Akihabara and Okachimachi stations, but is half occupied by JR tracks.

History

The area that is now Akihabara was once near a city gate of Edo and served as a passage between the city and northwestern Japan. This made the region a home to many craftsmen and tradesmen, as well as some low-class

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

. One of Tokyo's frequent fires destroyed the area in 1869, and the people decided to replace the buildings of the area with a shrine called Chinkasha (now known as Akiba Shrine ), meaning fire extinguisher shrine, in an attempt to prevent the spread of future fires. The locals nicknamed the shrine Akiba after the deity that could control fire, and the area around it became known as Akibagahara and later Akihabara. After Akihabara Station was built in 1888, the shrine was moved to the Taitō ward where it still resides today. Since its opening in 1890,

became a major freight transit point, which allowed a vegetable and fruit market to spring up in the district. Then, in the 1920s, the station saw a large volume of passengers after opening for public transport, and after World War II, the black market thrived in the absence of a strong government. This disconnection of Akihabara from government authority has allowed the district to grow as a market city and given rise to an excellent atmosphere for entrepreneurship. In the 1930s, this climate turned Akihabara into a future-oriented market region specializing in household

, such as washing machines, refrigerators, televisions, and stereos, earning Akihabara the nickname "Electric Town". As household electronics began to lose their futuristic appeal in the 1980s, the shops of Akihabara shifted their focus to home computers at a time when they were only used by specialists and hobbyists. This new specialization brought in a new type of consumer, computer nerds or ''otaku''. The market in Akihabara naturally latched onto their new customer base that was focused on

, manga, and video games. The connection between Akihabara and otaku has survived and grown to the point that the region is now known worldwide as a center for otaku culture, and some otaku even consider Akihabara to be a sacred place.IMAI, Nobuharu. "The Momentary and Placeless Community: Constructing a New Community with regards to Otaku Culture." ''Inter Faculty 1'' (2010).

''Otaku'' culture

The influence of ''

otaku is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in '' Manga Burikko''. may be used as a pejorat ...

'' culture has shaped Akihabara's businesses and buildings to reflect the interests of ''otaku'' and gained the district worldwide fame for its distinctive imagery.The ultimate geek's guide to Tokyo

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

travel (18 December 2018) Akihabara tries to create an atmosphere as close as possible to the game and anime worlds of customers' interest. The streets of Akihabara are covered with anime and manga icons, and cosplayers line the sidewalks handing out advertisements, especially for

s. Release events, special events, and conventions in Akihabara give anime and manga fans frequent opportunities to meet the creators of the works they follow and strengthen the connection between the region and ''otaku'' culture. The design of many of the buildings serves to create the sort of atmosphere that draws in ''otaku''. Architects design the stores of Akihabara to be more opaque and closed to reflect the general desire of many ''otaku'' to live in their anime worlds rather than display their interests to the world at large.Morikawa, Kaichiro. "Learning from Akihabara: The birth of a personapolis." ''Gentosha'', Tokyo (2003). Akihabara's role as a free market has also allowed a large amount of amateur work to find a passionate audience in the otaku who frequent the area. ''

Doujinshi , also romanized as ', is the Japanese term for self-published print works, such as magazines, manga, and novels. Part of a wider category of ''doujin'' (self-published) works, ''doujinshi'' are often derivative of existing works and created by ...

'' (amateur or fanmade manga based on an anime/manga/game) has been growing in Akihabara since the 1970s when publishers began to drop manga that were not ready for large markets. Comiket is largest spot sale of ''

in Japan.''

References

External links

Akihabara Area Tourism Organization

Akihabara Electrical Town Organization website

{{Authority control Chiyoda, Tokyo Electronics districts Neighborhoods of Tokyo Otaku Shopping districts and streets in Japan Taitō Tourist attractions in Tokyo

Geography

History

''Otaku'' culture

See also

References

External links