Akihabara nights: maids everywhere… like it or not.

I have some kind of love-hate relationship with Akihabara. I love it for its mood, for its shops, for its crowds mixing families and otakus, for its lights and for its shops… But lately the “maid cafe” business took some incredible proportions. Maybe too much for my taste. I went there a few days ago to take some pictures for an article I had to write for a French magazine, and I was baffled by the sheer number of maids I saw. Maids have always been part of Akiba’s identity, no problem with that… But today at dusk you’ll find them lined up a few meters apart, literally everywhere. The COVID times during which Japan was basically closed to foreigners – tourists at least- seem to have been a powerful growth accelerator for the maid business, probably fuelled by an increased domestic demand.