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“Maid cafes” have become a popular fad in the otaku district known as the Akihabara in Tokyo. Here, pretty young women dressed in frilly lolicon costumes wait on male geek customers hand and foot, giving them some idea what it would be like to have a real subservient girlfriend. Just to even the score, “butler cafes” have also sprung up, where women customers get the royal treatment. (There was supposedly a butler cafe set up at the recent Yaoi Con.)

Now, via ComiPress a disturbing story that they report has badly shaken the otaku world: a maid was accosted and assaulted at knife point.

Not only is Akihabara a hot tourist spot, but it also serves as a place for geeks and otakus to “heal their spiritual wounds.”

A few days ago, a shocking event took place in this otaku heaven that sent tremors throughout the otaku world – a maid was threatened, and subsequently molested, by a man. This incident is now being called “Maid Hunting,” named after the controversial “Otaku Hunting” event that took place earlier this fall in Akihabara.

According to reports, around 7:00pm on October 17th in front of the JR Akihabara Station, a 18 year old girl dressed as a maid (who was handing out flyers) was approached by a man. The man asked, “Are you a college student? Where do you work?” The maid was then asked to bring the man to the maid cafe she worked at. When they were climbing the stairs of the maid cafe, the man suddenly took out a small knife, and proceeded to forcefully molest the maid’s lower body.


According to another story, this was the third recent assault on a maid. The “otaku hunting” incident mentioned above refers to reports of thieves targeting supposedly loaded otaku:

In late September, a group of teens arrested for mugging said they selected their target because he was headed for the central Tokyo otaku haven of Akihabara and appeared loaded with money.

“We figured that otaku are pretty weak and always carry around lots of cash,” Shukan Post quotes one of the arrested muggers telling the police.

In fact, this year Akihabara has already witnessed 25 reported cases of “otaku hunting” and cops fear there could be more. The stereotypical image of the otaku is somebody who devotes as much time and money as possible to their obsession of choice, buying magazines, toys and whatever other paraphernalia tickles their fancy. And the geeks are also normally seen as weak, mild-mannered types not likely to put up a fight if accosted.