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Most agree that Japanese maids are not direct imports from Europe but that they have come to embody 'moe' elements to become an original concept.  This concept may not comply with the kind of maids that the Japan Maid Association is preaching for. Indeed, it is the diversity of maids that makes it interesting. The variety and types of maid is probably exactly what is needed to cater to the diverse clientele. Despite these activities in the maid industry, the peak of the maid boom has been long over. Two or three years ago there were once about 70 maid cafes in Akiba. Prospects for the maid cafe industry are bleak as many in the scene predict maid establishments to decrease to a third of their number by next year. One only wonders how that would change the energy and liveliness of Akiba.

The pressure on Akiba Walker's Paradise has been heating up, and the media has also joined in the game by adding more spice to the weekly Sunday drama. Today at Akiba, an interesting phenomenon has happened; a group of policemen whom the otaku calls the 'blue people' were followed by groups of reporters from TV stations and behind them is an even bigger group of curious crowd.

Sure, one could easily focus on all of the negative aspects of people who are called or call themselves otaku--people have been making fun of otaku for over 25 years--but considering that most otaku around the world aren't criminals but are instead doing some very cool and creative things,

Some in Akihabara wondered how long it would take for the scars to heal."There will be some negative impact for now," said Takuma Kobayashi, an 18-year-old university student. "But it will be erased as time goes by."

Twenty-five years after the idea of otaku began poking through like a sly worm from the apple of Japanese materialism, there are geek-culture wormholes everywhere.

Otaku is not what they do, it's the way they do it; an attitude and style associated with compulsive acquisition of popular culture objects and experiences and saturated in IT, especially interactive technology, a field in which otaku are increasingly influential.

Still, some popular journalism in Japan persists in casting otaku as a slur on society. Some sociologists still warn they are a hazard to themselves. Some foreign commentators keep using them to witter on about existential isolation in contemporary Japan.

And therein lies the rub. The image of girls getting out of hand is hard for some to swallow.

Experts predict that Japan’s population will shrink to 108 million by 2030, and critics of the otaku phenomenon blame men and women who can now live meaningful lives without human companionship. One analyst says that the rampant creativity of otaku is rivaled only by their stunted emotional growth. Journalist Yumiko Sugiura, who literally wrote the book on fujoshi (2006’s The Fujoshi-izing World: The Female Otaku of East Ikebukuro), says women who indulge fantasies of queer love rather than finding boyfriends face an even greater backlash than their male counterparts. She believes that, via yaoi, fujoshi demonstrate dissatisfaction with traditional Japanese expectations of what a woman’s life should be.