is a district of Tokyo located about five minutes away from Tokyo Station. Over the

past 140 years Akihabara has developed into a nexus of electronic, computer, anime, games

and otaku culture, but if you were to travel back about 100 years in Akihabara's history,

you're more likely to find fruits and vegetables than anything else as Akihabara was, for several decades, a produce market.

Following a devastating fire in 1869, the 30,000 square meters of what would later become

Akihabara was cleared in an effort to prevent future fires from reaching the inner part of the city.

At that time, it was actually pretty common for Edo, or modern day Tokyo,

to completely be leveled by fire about once every 20-25 years.

Following the fire, the 'Chinka-sha' shrine was constructed on the cleared site and was wholeheartedly

embraced by the local citizens, who got it completely wrong! Many residents of Downtown Tokyo

completely misunderstood the shrine and thought it enshrined the most popular fire-controlling deity

at the time, Akiba or Akiha. They even went a step further and decided to call the land around

the shrine 'Akiba ga Hara' or 'Square of Akiba'. I'm sure you can see where this is going.

It wasn't until post-World War II however, that Akihabara began to take the form it resembles

today. Centered around the first school of electrical manufacturing, now the Tokyo Denki

University, black market vacuum tubes and radio related electronic shops began to sprout up.

This continued until computers and console gaming started to enter mainstream culture

with devices like the 'famikon' driving the sales of videogames. The subsequent Windows

PC boom in 1994 cemented Akihabara's reputation as a technological mecca as vendors began

carrying computer related products.

But don't think the evolution ends there! With computer sales slowing somewhat in the

past decade, Akihabara has shifted it's focus toward 'otaku' subculture and the transition

has been seamless.

If you were to translated the modern usage of the word 'otaku' into English, you'd probably

end up with 'geek' or 'nerd'. That being said, this word applies to anyone who is a fan of

a particular theme, hobby, topic or form of entertainment. While there are connotations

of social awkwardness and a somewhat obsessive nature, the word has started to be reclaimed

by the 'otaku' population as a positive descriptor.

The word 'otaku' as it's used in Japanese subculture comes from the Japanese word of

the same pronunciation that is the honorific term for a person's house but is used metaphorically

as a second-person pronoun meaning 'you'. Although there is a bit of dispute regarding

the origin of the word, most attribute it Akio Nakamori's series titled 'An Investigation

of Otaku' printed in the lolicon magazing Manga Burikko in 1983.

The terms was used to describe fans who inappropriately used the word 'otaku' well past

the point in their relationship in which they would have been OK to use a more casual word.

The word continued to gain popularity but was catapulted into the mainstream with the

murder trial of Tsutomu Miyazaki who was branded 'The Otaku Murderer' after being convicted

in a series of gruesome deaths. While this notorious murderer cast the title in a negative

light, as enthusiasts around the world have begun to embrace the word, 'otaku' has become

somewhat more positively received in recent years.

Whether you're into anime, manga, video games, computers, trains, characters, maid cafes,

music idols, cooking, insects, pop stars, etc... it's probably safe to call yourself

an 'otaku'. Wear your badge of 'otakuness' with pride!

Thanks for watching this episode of The Japan Show, if you have any questions or suggestions

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