Akihabara’s “Wacky” Maid Cafés Debunked
By Amelia Lee, Andrew Lim, Chen Yiyang, Chua Liangwei
Introduction
As Wagenaar contends, owing to the prejudiced nature of Orientalism, the West perpetuates the fallacious assumption that bizarre phenomena like maid cafés are products of Japan’s inherent “wackiness” (2016, 50). This misguided stereotype will be debunked through a comprehensive appreciation of the economic significance in commercializing maid cafés, and the Japanese socio-cultural phenomenon of omotenashi.
Maid Cafés as Commercialized Subculture
Maid Cafés as Subculture
Maid cafés must foremost be understood as a subculture. The waitresses and customers form a unique community with shared practices. As Gordon posits, subcultures subsume under a larger society, but simultaneously exist as discrete “world[s]” with radically divergent mores and behaviors (1947, 41). For example, an established “wacky” pre-meal ritual is that members chant “moe moe kyun”, accompanied by hand gestures that signify “shooting love beams”, symbolically imbuing the meal with “love” (Galbraith 2019, 194). Additionally, participants implicitly understand their expected roles as “Master” and “Maid” within their imaginary world. Hence, partaking in maid café subculture requires an understanding of its fantasy-themed lexicon, ritualized behaviors and shared narratives.
As a subculture, maid cafés are incongruent with the norms of their parent society, Japan. Mainstream Japanese envisage girls to “‘graduate’ (sotsugyō)” into womanhood by embracing their responsibility to be housewives and mothers (Steger, Koch and Tso 2020, 106). Contrastingly, maids are suspended in a limbo of perpetual youthfulness, continually employing kawaii mannerisms. From society’s perspective, maids appear absurd because they are women who seemingly deny their maturity.
Simultaneously, Japanese society vilifies otaku, predominant consumers of maid cafés. Within Japan, the label “otaku” traditionally carries denigratory connotations of childish, counterproductive men who immerse in popular culture, evading societal expectations to be hardworking salarymen (Kam 2013, 56). Given that maid cafés are the subject of intranational Othering, they arguably constitute unorthodox, alternative culture in Japan, counter to Western preconceptions.
Maid Cafés under Cool Japan
Although maid cafés are indubitably misrepresentative of mainstream Japan, they have become renown worldwide as a “wacky” Japanese cultural product, crucially due to the government’s efforts to commercialize them under its profit-driven Cool Japan policy. Consequently, maid café subculture has been recast into a seemingly major aspect of Japanese popular culture. This deceptive rebranding contributes to the West’s misguided assumption that Japan is fundamentally idiosyncratic. While controversial and perplexing, this policy is motivated by compelling economic impetuses.
Tourism as an Engine of Economic Growth
The commodification of maid cafés facilitates the Cool Japan policy, augmenting government efforts to transform Japan’s tourism industry into a driver of economic growth. As Aramaki highlights, the Japanese economy faces economic stagnation, and risks contraction, due to severe internal problems, including declining competitiveness in the automobile industry, aging demographics and sluggish domestic consumption (2018, 89). The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) frames the Cool Japan policy as a potential panacea to Japan’s woes, arguing that by capitalizing on blossoming international fascination with Japanese popular culture, it can tap into a highly profitable market of foreign consumers, attract inbound tourism and thereby stimulate growth and employment in Japan (2012, 4).
There are two plausible reasons explaining the government’s decision to promote maid cafés to tourists. Wagenaar posits that the allure and profitability of controversial cultural products may motivate Japan to become complicit in preserving the persona of “wackiness” that the West promulgates (2016, 51). In maid cafés, starkly non-normative elements may generate shock value or humour for an outsider, but framed as a selling point, such stark cultural differences potentially increase Japan’s intrigue and appeal.
Alternatively, the state’s ardent efforts to commercialize maid cafés could reflect its misunderstanding of foreign reception to unique Japanese subcultures. Iwabuchi contends that policymakers mistakenly generalize contemporary Japanese cultural products as uniformly “attractive” and “charm[ing]” to global consumers (2016, 38-39). Consequently, even peripheral, marginalised subcultures like maid cafés are blanketly promoted to maximize Japan’s tourist appeal to the wider population of global consumers, bolstering external demand and growth. Hence, the state’s profit-driven agenda indirectly induces the Orientalism that Japan faces.
Otaku as Profitable Consumers
Japanese policymakers have ascertained otaku to be a lucrative source of revenue because amidst economic downturns, they paradoxically maintain fervent consumption of popular culture goods and services such as maid cafés (Sharp 2011, 11), unlike ordinary households who decrease their consumption instead. In 2005, Japan’s pre-eminent Nomura Research Institute (NRI) appraised the “market value of ‘otaku’ consumption” at “411 billion yen” (Kam 2013, 40), contributing significantly to Japan’s Real GDP.
Galbraith further attests to the liberal spending habits of otaku, observing that avid patrons of maid cafés are insensitive to “cost” concerns, frequenting such establishments obsessively and spending generously beyond the minimal requirement (2019, 197). Their irrational behavior can be dissected using the economic concept of necessities. As Mankiw posits, a single good can be perceived as a necessity or luxury, depending on individual consumer “preferences” (2009, 90). Mainstream consumers deem popular culture products like maid cafés as luxuries because they constitute entertainment but are unnecessary to maintain basic quality of life.
In contrast, otaku may regard maid café services as necessities because these establishments provide a sui generis service which has few substitutes–they fulfill the emotional needs of antisocial otaku. For some who desire more intimate, realistic relations with manga-based shōjo characters, the cosplaying waitresses perform as surrogates of the fantasy-themed personas, enabling otaku to interact with the “two-dimensional”. As Galbraith postulates, the maid café business model predicates on “affective economics”, wherein waitresses construct and reinforce “relationships” with their customers, to foster loyalty and ensure dedicated patronage (2019, 189-190). Otaku become tethered to the alternate realities and social networks in maid cafés, which are intangible, invaluable assets. Hence, despite the bleak economic outlook, maid café services are irreplaceable to the otaku, due to the immense social support they provide.
Considering the sluggish domestic consumption plaguing Japan, the anomalous purchasing patterns of otaku are favorable to the economy as they partially alleviate the severe demand-deficiency. Ultimately, commercializing maid cafés expands their outreach to more otaku consumers across geographical boundaries, generating a sustainable stream of revenue to ameliorate Japan’s struggling economy.
Maid Café Service as Omotenashi
To further dispel the stereotype that maid cafés are “wacky”, this section examines the personable service provided by maids in relation to the Japanese business mindset of omotenashi.
Omotenashi refers to the quality of being unpretentious and sincere. It has become a colloquial term for Japan’s renowned brand of hospitality. Nijishima defines omotenashi as a “skill”, or a host’s precognitive ability to ascertain and satisfy the unconveyed needs and wants of a “guest” expeditiously (2011, 55). Arguably, possessing and demonstrating this “skill” is advantageous to a nation whose economy is heavily dependent on service industries. Particularly, a whopping three-quarters of Japan’s private sector employees belong to the tertiary sector, which comprises service-based businesses such as restaurants, hotels and entertainment amongst others (Sugimoto 2014, 112). As maids simultaneously play the role of waitresses and entertainers, they must be especially adept at demonstrating omotenashi.
Omotenashi as Attentiveness to Individual Needs
A prerequisite for exhibiting omotenashi is that the host proactively puts himself in the shoes of the guests, with the aim of customizing his service to fulfill their individual needs (Hara 2016, 160). As mentioned, otaku customers frequently patronize maid cafés to seek intimate connections with fantasy personas. This behavior may be attributed to their antisocial nature. Kam expounds that as otaku are deeply absorbed in fantasy, they are reclusive and typically lack social aptitude (2013, 48).
Maid cafés recognize that such customers often face loneliness due to their lack of supportive social networks, and endeavor to address these emotional needs. For example, in Akihabara’s At-Home Café, loyal patrons are treated to a birthday song, complementary “dessert” and receive handwritten, “personalized” letters from the waitresses (Galbraith 2019, 204). Moreover, in most maid cafés, waitresses make the effort to “remember [their customers’] names”, greet them amiably and express curiosity and inquisitiveness about their daily affairs (Galbraith 2011, 10).
From the standpoint of an otaku recipient, these thoughtful actions and minor details can be uplifting and heartwarming. By being sensitive to the emotional needs of their customers, the maids transcend the basic expectation that they are mere waitresses. Rather, they strive to undertake supplementary roles as friends or confidants to their otaku clients, enabling customers to feel cherished and cared for within the subcultural community.
Hara argues that for omotenashi to be viable and “sustainable” in the long run, it is critical that the “recipients” be able to discern that the host has “gone the extra mile” to enhance the merit of his service (2016, 161). Arguably, restaurants are not expected to spontaneously, without prior arrangement or prompting, celebrate birthdays with their customers, because the providers and the consumers exist purely in a pragmatic, transactional relationship. Comparatively, maid cafés overturn this businesslike expectation. The otaku understand that such celebrations are unnecessary and impose higher costs for the producer. Yet, that the At-Home Café continues to implement such celebrations as a tradition intimates that they disregard short-term losses and instead prioritize their customers’ wellbeing. Hence, otaku are motivated to continue patronizing maid cafés because they appreciate the supportive atmosphere.
Omotenashi as Self-Fulfilment
Hara further posits that omotenashi generates gains even for the “service providers themselves”, invoking the precedent of sadō, wherein “70% of the service value is for the tea ceremony master, and the other 30% is for the guests” (ibid., 161). In catering to the needs of the otaku, the maids also benefit spiritually and emotionally. Galbraith notes that maid café waitresses have interests that “overlap” with the otaku, including fascination with cosplay, video games and manga, rendering them victims of “bullying” and persecution (2011, 10). Arguably, due to their shared predicament, maids can easily empathize with the emotional needs of otaku, because they too are outcasts, marginalized by conventional society. Hence, maids arguably desire friendship and intimacy, which they can derive from meeting like-minded participants in maid café subculture, such as other waitresses or otaku.
Furthermore, waitresses often stay much longer beyond their intended term at the café, because as Galbraith highlights, they can become increasingly sentimental (2019, 191). Given that such waitressing jobs provide meagre wages and thus inadequate monetary incentives, being a maid is not solely a job. The waitresses’ initiatives to provide friendship to the otaku entail that they themselves also now belong to a social network within the subculture. In this way, the unique form of hospitality, omotenashi, generates fulfillment even for the producer.
Omotenashi as Tradeoffs
The implementation of omotenashi in business is often “labor-intensive” and “time-consuming”, meaning that exceptionally high service standards come at the expense of efficiency and productiveness (Hara 2016, 161). For regular waitresses in conventional restaurants, the usual job scope is to take orders and serve food, occasionally making small talk with customers. In contrast, maids need to make extra effort to interact more intimately and personally with their customers. For instance, maids are expected to decorate customers’ meals with ketchup, perform pre-meal rituals, entertain customers with table-top or card games, and engage in photo-taking sessions (Galbraith 2019, 196). This smorgasbord of personalized services requires maids to be proficient in various technical and soft skills. Importantly, they need to continually present themselves as highly energetic and be capable of multitasking, prioritizing customers, and managing stress.
Furthermore, the physical presence of the maid is indispensable to the customers’ dining experience. As argued previously, the main attraction in maid cafés is not the cuisine, but the opportunity to interact with maids. Given the limited number of waitresses, they may often scramble between tables to entertain various customers consecutively. Arguably, such extraordinary service standards maximize customer satisfaction, enabling maid cafés to captivate otaku and amass a committed fanbase. The longstanding presence of maid cafés in Akihabara attests to the viability of omotenashi in the service industry.
Conclusion
JNTO travel campaigns like “Yōkoso Japan” (Welcome Japan) showcase a diverse range of Japanese cultural products in a commemorative tone. Consequently, foreign viewers assume that these advertisements portray representative traditional or popular culture in Japan. Maid cafés are, ironically, non-normative. However, they have been mass-marketed as a uniquely Japanese service, due to potential remunerative benefits. The unintended consequence is, the West misconstrues that mainstream Japan is “wacky”. Hence, in endorsing maid cafés, the state’s economic agenda indulges the Western Orientalist narrative.
Furthermore, maid café service exemplifies the Japanese mindset of omotenashi. The exceptional value that maids strive to create for their primary consumers, otaku, cannot be easily appreciated by outsiders. Foreigners may express bewilderment towards the over-the-top, enthusiastic demeanour of the maids, or their seemingly childish interactions with customers. However, they fail to understand that maids are sensitive to the needs of otaku, and take pride in going the extra mile to maximize customer satisfaction. Beyond their superficial associations with fantasy, maids are, fundamentally, sincere hosts seeking to fulfil the otaku’s unarticulated desire for social support. Knowing they have catered to their guests’ needs, the hosts simultaneously attain emotional satisfaction.
About the authors:
Name: Andrew Lim Jian Fei
Major: Economics
Japan-related Interests: Irezumi, ShogiName: Chen Yiyang
Major: My major is still undeclared, but I will choose JS as one of my majors
Interests: Music & Japanese literatureName: Amelia Lee
Major: Business Administration & Communications and New Media
Interests: Theatre, Graphic Design, Creative Writing
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