To understand Akihabara, you have to understand its ghosts. The Akihabara I walk through today is built on the memories of the one I discovered in 1991. Back then, it was truly “Akihabara Electric Town,” a sprawling maze of shops where you could find any whatsit for your whatnot. But even then, a change was coming. And for the last thirty years, I’ve watched as this iconic Tokyo district has died and been reborn, over and over again.
That’s what I remember from 1991 when I first arrived in Tokyo. But it was also a time of transition for the area. The electronic age started pushing many of those older shops out. I saw some of those changes.
Computer shops and others that sold specialized electronics were making inroads. Highly-focused hobby shops were doing the same. There was a lot of stuff you could only get in Akihabara. This attracted a new clientele, the otaku. Things changed again.
For me, though, it was a happening place. Glitz filled it. There were so many new things to do and experience. Akihabara was exciting. Many “only in Japan” things were there. I have so many good memories of it.
Akihabara is where I bought my first computer in Japan. It was a Compaq. The store where I got it was tiny. Trying to get past other customers in the aisles was a test! It was fun shopping there, but it was a complete fail haggling with the staff. That place no longer exists.
Do you know the AKB theatre building? Around 1996, it was T-Zone. T-Zone was like Bic Camera and Yodobashi Camera. I often used to look at its imported computer games. It had half a floor filled with them. The rest of the store had things like laser-disc players and massage chairs. You could get the latest of anything there. It was a growing company.
I went there a few years later, and it was gone! Such is life in Tokyo. Here one day and gone the next. Today, Don Quijote discount store occupies a few floors of that building. AKB48, the pop group, has a long-running theatre at the top.
AKB48 also had a cafe at a different location. It’s gone. The company closed it in November 2019. Gundam took it over. Unfortunately, it is gone too. Actually, all their branches have gone. Akihabara, like everywhere else, is in a perpetual state of change.
Nowadays, Akihabara has many manga, game arcades, and duty-free shops. Then there are the pet and maid cafes. Of course, the otaku are still around! Some specialized electric shops operate, but they aren’t the stars anymore. The 2022 Akihabara is very different from the one I once knew.
A while back, I watched an Only in Japan * Go video on YouTube. John Daub, the presenter, did a live stream from around the station. The changes in the area shocked him, and he showed places that had disappeared. A few days later, I went to Akihabara to see it myself.
Once out of the station, I went straight to the Sega Game Center Number Two building. To see it empty was a shock. Shops one, two, and three were still there. But the company announced that it would leave the game arcade business by the end of 2020.
Well, things panned out differently. SEGA rebranded the centers. They are now called GiGO, short for Get into Gaming Oasis. I have no comment on the name. I’ll leave that to you. By the way, the Number Two building still has no games.
Other businesses have suffered too. Some have disappeared. A few premises are unoccupied. Fewer people seem to be on the streets. E-sports appear to be on the rise. Gachapon machines blanket the area.
The maid cafes have changed. If I remember correctly, there used to be more of them. Now, they have consolidated into a few chains. But as the pandemic waned in Japan, their girls came back to the streets.
Were these changes a result of COVID? No, some are purely from business decisions. Things lose favor and are no longer needed.
It makes me wonder about things. Will the otaku, often associated with the area, be affected? That is a possibility. Why? Over the last few years, buildings like Akihabara UDX and Akihabara Dai have appeared. They are big businesses. The corporations are moving in. People in business attire are a common sight on the streets. They might push a lot of smaller players out.
These days, a real-world place mightn’t be necessary. People communicate online. Remote work is a thing for many companies anyway.
It’ll be interesting to see Akihabara in the future. Is Akihabara’s reign as the world’s otaku capital on its last legs? As corporations move in and business suits become as common as cosplayers, the district is undeniably changing again. Tourists have also flooded in. The question is not whether Akihabara will survive, but what it will transform into next.
What do you think? Is this new, more corporate Akihabara an improvement, or has the area lost its soul? Share your thoughts below.
This article was first published on 19 June, 2022
Rohan has lived in Tokyo for 30+ years. He loves photography and plans to capture the entire city.
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