No Place Like Home: 5,400 Japanese Live In Manga Cafes
Wednesday 29 August 2007 @ 9:00 am | By Ivan 'Nahu' LozanoIf you're new here and you like what you see, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed, and browse around for more fun stuff. Thanks for visiting!
Remember that scene in Maid in Akihabara where Mako Sakurai’s character lives in a cubicle in an Internet/manga cafe? Well she isn’t the only one, by far. While the fact that some otaku live in these cubicles isn’t new, a new study by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare has just revealed the true magnitude of this phenomenon.
After surveying 3,200 manga cafes the ministry found out that 5,400 people call these places home, having no other place to live. These people sleep, eat, shower (somewhat regularly I suppose), browse the internet, play games, read manga, watch anime and sometimes, just sometimes even work from these places. Is this a symptom of the rising costs of housing in Japan? The realization of the otaku that they really don’t need much else in the way or worldly possessions?
[ANN]







*LOL!* @ Remember that scene in Maid in Akihabara where Mako Sakurai’s character lives in a cubicle in an Internet/manga cafe? Well she isn’t the only one, by far.
I’m surprised some of these folk don’t get chucked out! I’d love for somebody to do a video diary of how to get away with living in an Internet / Manga cafe and how to go about doing it.
These must be the type of otakus who aren’t collectors.