Akihabara

Akihabara (秋葉原) ("Field of Autumn Leaves"), also known as Akihabara Electric Town (秋葉原電気街, Akihabara Denki Gai) and often shortened to just Akiba, is a town in Tokyo, Japan. It is located less than five minutes by rail from Tokyo Station. Its name is frequently shortened to Akiba in Japan. While there is an official locality named Akihabara nearby, part of Taitō-ku, the area known to most people as Akihabara (including the railway station of the same name) is actually Soto-Kanda, a part of Chiyoda-ku.

Akihabara is a major shopping area for electronic, computer, anime, and otaku goods, including new and used items. New items are mostly to be found on the main street, Chūōdōri, with many kinds of used items found in the back streets of Soto Kanda 3-chōme. First-hand parts for PC-building are readily available from a variety of stores. Tools, electrical parts, wires, microsized cameras and similar items are found in the cramped passageways of Soto Kanda 1-chōme (near the station). Foreign tourists tend to visit the big name shops like Laox or other speciality shops near the station, though there is more variety and lower prices at locales a little further away. Akihabara gained some fame through being home to one of the first stores devoted to personal robots and robotics.

Otaku culture

Otaku culture in Akihabara represents one aspect of the people who shop and 'hang out' there in the recent years. Some people there have unique lifestyles, centered on technological enterprises and an obsession for Anime/Manga, that have made them outsiders in other sections of Japanese society. These otaku are given the chance to gather here and to meet others who share their specific interests. Akihabara is currently seen as one of the shopping districts that represents a 'mecca' of sorts for otaku, as well as to the term Akiba-kei, or Akiba-type.

Recently, with increased exposure of "otaku" culture in the Japanese media, new buildings, and the opening of another new railway line, Akihabara has seen a boom in popularity and is a popular destination for many young people interested in its unique atmosphere. Like many urban neighborhoods, Akihabara has drawn criticism for gentrification, particularly for the expansion of chain retailers such as Yodobashi Camera and Starbucks into the area.^[1] On June 30, 2007, an "Akihabara Liberation" protest was held, attended by over 400 self-described otaku.^[2]

Brief history

The area was just out of Sujikai-gomon city gate (present Mansei bridge) which was one of the city gates (Mitsuke) of old Edo (Tokyo). It was the gateway from inner Edo to northern and northwestern Japan and Kan’ei-ji temple in Ueno. Many dealers, craftsmen and relatively lower class samurai lived there.
1869: A major blaze destroyed the area. It brought about the decision to clear the 30,000 square metres of land in order to keep future fires from getting into inner Tokyo city.
1870: In this cleared land a small Shinto shrine once in old Edo Castle was built. The shrine’s name was 鎮火社, which means "the extinguisher shrine").
But many downtown Tokyo residents misunderstood the shrine. They thought that the deity Akiba or Akiha (秋葉) which was the most popular fire-controlling deity in central and eastern Japan must have been enshrined in it. They also called the cleared land "Akiba ga hara" or "Akibappara" which means "the deity Akiba’s square".
1888: The shrine moved to Matsugaya, near Asakusa.
1890: Extension of the rail line (now the Tōhoku Main Line) from Ueno to Akihabara. At first there was no passenger service, for south of the station was the Akihabara cargo docks, where goods from all over the world would flow into Kanda by river and be hauled up the east bank of the canal to be ticketed at the central cargo transport window.
From the Meiji to the Shōwa period, as the electric railway improved transport to Akihabara and the surrounds, and especially due to the growth in dealerships, the district was designated as Seika Shijō (青果市場: vegetables and fruits market).
1925: Akihabara-Tokyo station connection opened as the Tohoku line extended to Tokyo.
1930: The temporary Manseibashi Subway Station opens; it is closed in November 1931.
1932: As the Green Line station opened with an interconnection, Akihabara became an important transfer point.
1935: Official establishment of Seika Shijō. (Kanda Seika Shijō).
1936: The site of Manseibashi Station was closed (later the Transportation Museum—now closed). Railway mania had reached its zenith. The area became the number one place for electrical supplies.
Circa 1945-1955 After World War II, a black market at Kanda developed around the first school of electrical manufacturing (now the Tokyo Technical College). Clustered around the Sobu underground line, what began as a host of electrical stores selling vacuum tubes, radio goods and electrical items to the students, has today come to be known as Electric Town. Called "musen" or "wireless" shops, they were the first to begin selling radios. With the advent of wireless and radio goods, people came to be much more connected.
1960s: Thanks to advanced technology, the rival Nipponbashi district of Osaka took its position as an equally prominent Electric Town, selling vast volumes of household consumer durable goods such as televisions, refrigerators and washing machines.
1980s: Accompanying the spread of the personal computer in family homes ("Famikom"), local shops increasingly began to deal in computer games, and major gaming chain stores appeared on the market.
1989: Kanda Seika Shijō moved to Ōta-ku, south district of Tokyo.
1990s: With the Yamada and Kojima household chain stores appearing throughout the suburban outskirts of Tokyo, the sale of consumer durables at Akihabara was greatly reduced, however the sale of computer goods increased in equal measure.
1991:Sofmap begins its rise as a major seller of new and used Japan-market computer parts and software, including popular systems from NEC (PC-8801 and 9801), Sharp (X68000) and Fujitsu (FM-Towns). Sofmap chain stores begin popping up in different locations in Akihabara.
1994: The Windows PC boom and accompanying computer store growth began.
It was also during the 1990s that the anime craze grew out of computer games, and the youth group known as otaku began to pour into Akihabara.
Since 2000, with name-brand computer sales in decline, anime shops have arisen in their place, selling to the otaku crowd.
Since 2005, major redevelopment and modernization of the station and surrounding area. Tsukuba Express, Tokyo's fastest private railway, opens in Akihabara.

Access

Akihabara Station is served by JR East (Yamanote Line, Keihin-Tōhoku Line and Chūō-Sōbu Line), Tokyo Metro (Hibiya Line) and Tsukuba Express.

Suehirochō Station on the Ginza Line subway and Iwamotochō Station on the Toei Shinjuku Line subway are also within walking distance from Akihabara.

References

^ Macias, Patrick (2007-09-27). "Akihabara's awful truth". OTAKOOL. The Japan Times. Retrieved 2008-01-16.
^ Danny Choo (2007-07-02). "Akihabara Liberation Demo". DannyChoo.com. Retrieved 2008-01-16.