are a subcategory of cosplay restaurants found predominantly in Japan and Taiwan. In these cafés, waitresses, dressed in maid costumes, act as servants, and treat customers as masters (and mistresses) as if they were in a private home, rather than as café patrons. The first permanent maid café, Cure Maid Café, was established in

Akihabara is a neighborhood in the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo, Japan, generally considered to be the area surrounding Akihabara Station (nicknamed ''Akihabara Electric Town''). This area is part of the and Kanda-Sakumachō districts of Chiyoda. There is an ...

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, Japan, in March 2001, but maid cafés are becoming increasingly popular. The increased competition drove the cafes to employ more diversified themes, gimmicks and even unusual tactics to attract customers. They have also expanded overseas to several countries, including the United States.

History

Maid cafés were traditionally associated with

(秋葉原), a district in Tokyo famous for its extensive electronics and anime/manga related stores. Commonly a place for

otaku is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, such as anime, manga, video games, computers or other highly enthusiastic hobbies. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in '' Manga Burikko''. ...

to visit, Akihabara contains several themed cafes, including maid cafes. However, with the increasing media attention on these cafes, they have developed into tourist attractions as well and less of an otaku hotspot. Because of this, peak wait times can be about two hours. These establishments also tap into a new trend in Japan that deals with alternate forms of intimacy. Historically, following Japan’s economic crash during the 1990s, the ideas surrounding intimacy changed to become more individualistic. Because of this, some people who cannot form organic relationships with others turn to other forms of intimacy in order to fulfill the missing intimacy in their lives. Therefore, maid cafes provide a place for people to do so, especially for those who are interested in manga and anime because these cafes tend to mimic these works. In addition, though maid cafes can have certain connotations, these establishments do not provide any sexual services.

Comparison to other establishments

Though maid cafés do not provide sexual services, the gender relations contribute to the popularity and enjoyable experience for patrons. Scholars such as Patrick Galbraith and Anne Allison conclude that maid cafés provide a very different experience compared to things such as hostess clubs. These places focus more on the workplace and satisfying men due to their hard work, whereas maid cafés operate in quite different ways. For example, visiting maid cafés often is not seen as anything shameful, whereas chronically visiting a hostess bar is viewed quite differently in Japan. In fact, many maid cafés rely on regular customers to provide stable business. Instead, maid cafés focus on providing an escape from the home and work spheres. Furthermore, according to anthropologists such as Anne Allison, a maid café lacks the same sexual and caretaker undertones that hostess bars do. Maids encapsulate a more pure form that provides an alternate world to patrons. Customers tend to not stray from appropriate topics as an attempt to preserve this space created through role play with the maid.

Employees

These maids are almost always younger women, ranging from around 18 years old to their mid twenties. These women make roughly around the Japanese minimum wage and tend to live with their families. The maids themselves tend to enjoy anime and manga and other aspects of otaku culture, allowing them to create further connections with their patrons. However, these jobs tend to not be careers for these women, rather being stopgaps before acquiring permanent employment elsewhere. Contrary to popular belief, the maids themselves tend to enjoy their work due to the ability to express themselves and explore the café's alternate character universe alongside the patrons. However, issues still remain regarding patron conduct outside the workplace. Although strict rules are established to prevent disorderly conduct at these cafés, some customers violate these rules and attempt to make contact outside the workplace, causing maids to experience discomfort. Preserving a particular image/identity is also vital to upholding the fantasy component of these establishments. In addition to the strict rules for patrons, the maids adopt different names for work and are not allowed to smoke or drink. Their personal relationships with men are also affected, as they cannot spend time with other Akihabara men. By doing so, this allows the maids to uphold a specific identity to their patrons and potential customers. When their careers as maids come to a close, whether due to age or by choice, some can opt to work for the corporate agencies behind these cafés. For example, one prominent maid from home cafe opted to work on the advertising side of the industry after entering the dating scene and therefore altering her identity as a maid.

Costume and appearance

The maid costume varies from café to café but most are based upon the costume of

French maid ''French maid'' was a term applied in the Victorian period, Victorian and early 20th-century periods to a lady's maid of French nationality. A lady's maid was a senior servant who reported directly to the lady of the house, and accompanied h ...

s, often composed of a dress, a

petticoat A petticoat or underskirt is an article of clothing, a type of undergarment worn under a skirt or a dress. Its precise meaning varies over centuries and between countries. According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', in current British E ...

, a pinafore, a matching hair accessory (such as a frill or a bow), and

stockings Stockings (also known as hose, especially in a historical context) are close-fitting, variously elastic garments covering the leg from the foot up to the knee or possibly part or all of the thigh. Stockings vary in color, design, and transparen ...

. Often, employees will also

cosplay Cosplay, a blend word of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and Fashion accessory, fashion accessories to represent a specific Character (arts), character. Cosplayers often i ...

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

characters. Sometimes, employees wear animal ears with their outfits to add more appeal. Most commonly, manga style costumes are worn. Waitresses in maid cafés are often chosen on the basis of their appearance; most are young, attractive and innocent-looking women. Applicants are sometimes tested to determine whether they can sufficiently portray a given character that they will be cosplaying. In order to maintain the cosplay fantasy, some employees may be contractually obligated to not reveal personal information to patrons, to slip out of character or to allow patrons to see them out of costume. These maids are traditionally female, with men working in operational tasks such as cooking. However, some maid cafés also have cross-dressing males as maids. Crossdressing maid cafés have attracted a lot of attention and have become very popular.

Clientele

Maid cafés were originally designed primarily to cater to the fantasies of male

– fans of

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

and

video games A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

. They have been analogized as the otaku's equivalent of hostess bars. The image of the

maid A maid, housemaid, or maidservant is a female domestic worker. In the Victorian era, domestic service was the second-largest category of employment in England and Wales, after agricultural work. In developed Western nations, full-time maids a ...

is one that has been popularized and fetishized in many manga and anime series, as well as in gal games. Important to the otaku attraction to maid cafés is the Japanese concept of '' moe''. People who have moe fetishes (especially a specific subcategory known as maid moe) are therefore attracted to an establishment in which they can interact with real-life manifestations (both physically and in demeanor) of the fictional maid characters that they have fetishized. Cafés may also employ a ''

tsundere is a Culture of Japan, Japanese term for a character development process that depicts a character with an initially harsh personality who gradually reveals a warmer, friendlier side over time. The word is derived from the terms (adverb, 'mo ...

'' theme - another character trope which is a subset of the moe phenomenon and refers to a character who is initially cold or hostile before revealing feelings of warmth or affection. Around the early 2000s, maid cafés became more common and popular in Japan as otaku culture became increasingly mainstream. As a result, there has been a diversification of themes and services at the restaurants but they are ultimately still predominantly colored by anime and video games. Today, the maid café phenomenon attracts more than just male otaku, but also couples, tourists, and women. Other types of cafés consist of: * Victorian style, based on the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...

of the U.K. * "Modern-traditional", where maids wear a mixture of

kimono The is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn Garment collars in hanfu#Youren (right lapel), left side wrapped over ri ...

and maid outfits. * Neko Café: Neko (ネコ, 猫) means ''cat'' in Japanese, and maids will wear cat tails and cat ears.

Most maid cafés offer menus similar to those of more typical cafés. Customers can order coffee, other beverages, and a wide variety of entrées and desserts. However, in maid cafés, waitresses will often decorate a customer's order with cute designs at their table. Syrup can be used to decorate desserts and , a popular entrée combining omelettes and rice, is typically decorated using ketchup. This service adds to the image of the waitress as an innocent but pampering maid. These prices are typically raised in order to compensate for the service provided by these maids. In the making of these decorative desserts and entrées, maids will often also begin to say chants, making both the experience and food that their customers are about to receive seem more .

Rituals, etiquette and additional services

There are many rituals and additional services offered at many maid cafés. Maids greet customers with and offer them wipe towels and menus. Maids will also kneel by the table to stir cream and sugar into a customer's coffee, and some cafés even offer spoon-feeding services to customers. Customers can also sometimes play

rock-paper-scissors Rock, Paper, Scissors (also known by several other names and word orders) is an intransitive hand game, usually played between two people, in which each player simultaneously forms one of three shapes with an outstretched hand. These shapes a ...

, card games, board games and video games with maids as well as prepare

arts and crafts The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...

and sing

karaoke is a type of interactive entertainment system usually offered in nightclubs and bars, where people sing along to pre-recorded accompaniment using a microphone. Its musical content is an instrumental rendition of a well-known popular song. I ...

. Many maid cafés have a small stage where the maids will perform and also take pictures with the customers. Customers are also expected to follow basic rules when they are at a maid café. In 2014, one Tokyo maid café published a list of ten rules that customers should follow in a maid café. For example, customers should not touch a maid's body, ask for a maid's personal contact information, or otherwise invade her personal privacy (by

stalking Stalking is unwanted and/or repeated surveillance or contact by an individual or group toward another person. Stalking behaviors are interrelated to harassment and intimidation and may include following the victim in person or monitorin ...

). One common rule in a maid café is that photographs of maids or the café interior are forbidden. However, customers may have the option of paying an extra fee to have their photograph taken with a maid, possibly hand-decorated by the maid. Some maid cafés implement an hourly charge. Patrons are further reminded of these rules when entering, as posters are often on the wall listing rules for that particular establishment.

References

External links

Free up to date information on more than 275 maid cafes and similar sites in Akihabara
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maid cafe Types of coffeehouses and cafés Cosplay Heisei era Japanese inventions Japanese popular culture 2001 introductions