Thanks for sharing your knowledge on this!

One more thing, if you still stay in Japan, you should be cautious when posting a portrait photograph on a website. Unlike other country, under Japan’s law, the person in portrait can sue you if you posted his/her photo without permission even if you take the photo in public area.

Personally, I think Japanese is pretty paranoid when it comes to photography.

If the maid job was degrading
I am sure would command a “degrading”
premium as MOST jobs in developed countries do.
BUT
if you do some reserch and check the hourly salaries ???
of?maid versus the say STARBUCKS (800 JPY)…
surprise surprise:

JAPAN AVERAGE SALARY :
in a maid cafe : 800 to 1200 JPY per hour
in food service establishment: 1030 JPY (2006)

I just visited maidcafe twice
one time it was wonderful and theother was boring.

I say let-s respect the men and women who do like doing that job.
I do not understand why quite number of foreing girls feel so jealous and feel
so self righteous about criticizing that akiba lolita gothic kawaii culture.

No, maid cafe it is not a more degrading job than starbucks.
And yes,?it is a popular job, and it requires some EQ skills to be a good maid.

In writing this article I assumed maid cafes were not entirely different to hostess clubs, but perhaps that is wrong, and there is no seedier side to them. In which case yes, this article would be suggesting women in service jobs were akin to prostitutes, which I can see would be degrading.

But. Surely maids in a maid cafes are not the same as a big-breasted waitress in a regular cafe. I’d go to the regular cafe primarily for the food. Maid cafes are places that thrive on the master-servant goth-lolita attraction otakus feel. No-one goes for the food. Is it wholly wrong to infer some kind of sexual undertones at play here? Certainly the maids are in the business of selling their appearance, even if it goes no further. We could (cynically, sure) call that ‘touting their wares’. Doubtless they can get bonuses if they get their patrons to like them more and splash out on super-fancy omelettes or whatnot, similar to expensive champagne in hostess bars. Is it unreasonable to assume some might go further, in the hopes of making more cash?

That final step is conjecture of course, and speaks more to my opinion of what men will pay for than the nature of the women involved.

“Perhaps they are embarrassed by what they do, and don’t want to be seen in their professional gear touting their wares on the street.”

“but I don’t doubt it can and does happen somewhat. Plenty of otaku have cash, and plenty of young women want it.”

“Decked out in frilly French maid outfits, wide-eyed and gushingly friendly to perps, they prey on the nerdy ‘otaku’ that inhabit Akiba’s warren of back-streets like level 3 kobolds in a beginner dungeon.”

You basically just degraded all women. They’re doing a job. period. So the girl with the big breasts at your local restaurant that Im sure you tip a little more(when you’re not in japan of course) is wrong too? You knew what it was before you went there. Some people Im sure that visit this site have never been there as you and I have. Why describe it so incredibly sexist and be very degrading to the women that do work there.

That’s not a very journalistic point of view. I enjoy this site a lot… but MJG this was absolutely your worse piece or “reporting” ever. Your approach would have maybe been applicable 30 years ago.

David- Cheers, and yeah, it’s awkward, but makes for an interesting study afterwards.

Alice- True, they are kind of asking for it by being out there in costume. I felt a bit stalkerish a few times, especially once shooting a girl who turned away when she saw my lens, I repositioned, she turned back then turned away again. I walked away from her without a shot, too uncomfortable to continue ‘hunting’ her like that. Will we see Britney on these pages? Ha, probably not