Shady Maid Cafés Found in Osaka Ask; “May I Clean Out Your Wallet, Sir?”

For the Osaka otaku with cash burning a hole in their pocket, Nipponbashi is the place to be.  Also known as Den-Den Town, this shopping district specializes in whatever nerdy obsession you have from vintage 1985 video games to knives that look like they came from a Klingon’s rec room.

The highest concentration of these shops can be found next to the main street in a lane known as Ota-Road (otaku road).  Here among the crowded shops you can find extra treats like street performers (I once saw a one-man death metal band perform) and girls in maid outfits handing out flyers for the 30 plus maid cafés packed around this 300-meter strip of asphalt.

While these young women may help the wonderfully absurd ambiance of Ota-Road they may also be violating Japan’s Businesses Affecting Public Morals Regulation Law (mercifully shortened to the less redundant Fueiho), the law regulating the sex industry in the country.

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