Akihabara
Encyclopedia
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Japan. It is located less than five minutes by rail from Tokyo Station
Tokyo Station
is a train station located in the Marunouchi business district of Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan, near the Imperial Palace grounds and the Ginza commercial district....
. Its name is frequently shortened to in Japan. While there is an official locality named Akihabara nearby, part of Taitō-ku
Taito, Tokyo
is one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo, Japan. In English, it calls itself Taito City.As of April 1, 2011, the ward has an estimated population of 168,909, with 94,908 households, and a population density of 16,745.86 persons per km². The total area is 10.08 km².-History:The ward was founded...
, the area known to most people as Akihabara (including the railway station of the same name
Akihabara Station
is a railway station locatedin Tokyo's Chiyoda ward. It is at the center of the famous Akihabara shopping district specializing in electronic goods.-Lines:JR East:* Keihin-Tōhoku Line* Yamanote Line* Chūō-Sōbu LineTokyo Metro:...
) is actually Soto-Kanda, a part of Chiyoda
Chiyoda, Tokyo
is one of the 23 special wards in central Tokyo, Japan. In English, it is called Chiyoda ward. As of October 2007, the ward has an estimated population of 45,543 and a population density of 3,912 people per km², making it by far the least populated of the special wards...
-ku.
Akihabara is a major shopping area for electronic, computer, anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
, and otaku
Otaku
is a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga or video games.- Etymology :Otaku is derived from a Japanese term for another's house or family , which is also used as an honorific second-person pronoun...
goods, including new and used items. New items are mostly to be found on the main street, Chūōdōri, with many kinds of used items found in the back streets of Soto Kanda 3-chōme
Japanese addressing system
The Japanese addressing system is used to identify a specific location in Japan. In Japanese, addresses are written using the opposite convention from Western addresses, starting with the biggest geographical entities down to the more specific ones....
. New parts for PC-building are readily available from a variety of stores. Tools, electrical parts, wires, microsized cameras and similar items are found in the cramped passageways of Soto Kanda 1-chōme (near the station). Foreign tourists tend to visit the big name shops like Laox or other speciality shops near the station, though there is more variety and lower prices at locales a little further away. Akihabara gained some fame through being home to one of the first stores devoted to personal robots and robotics.
The area was just out of Sujikai-gomon city gate
City gate
A city gate is a gate which is, or was, set within a city wall. Other terms include port.-Uses:City gates were traditionally built to provide a point of controlled access to and departure from a walled city for people, vehicles, goods and animals...
(present Mansei bridge
Manseibashi
is a concrete single arch bridge across the Kanda River in Chiyoda, Tokyo. Two public transport stations and a police station nearby are named after this bridge....
) which was one of the city gates (Mitsuke) of old Edo
Edo
, also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...
(Tokyo). It was the gateway from inner Edo to northern and northwestern Japan and Kan’ei-ji temple in Ueno
Ueno, Tokyo
is a district in Tokyo's Taitō Ward, best known as the home of Ueno Station and Ueno Park. Ueno is also home to some of Tokyo's finest cultural sites, including the Tokyo National Museum, the National Museum of Western Art, and the National Science Museum, as well as a major public concert hall...
. Many dealers, craftsmen and relatively lower class samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
lived there.
Timeline
- 1869: A major blaze destroyed the area. It brought about the decision to clear the 30,000 square metres of land in order to keep future fires from getting into inner Tokyo city.
- 1870: In this cleared land a small ShintoShintoor Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...
shrine once in old Edo CastleEdo Castle, also known as , is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan. It is located in Chiyoda in Tokyo, then known as Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Tokugawa shogunate here. It was the residence of the shogun and location of the shogunate, and also...
was built. The shrine's name was , which means "the extinguisher shrine"). But many downtown Tokyo residents misunderstood the shrine. They thought that the deity Akiba or Akiha which was the most popular fire-controlling deity in central and eastern Japan must have been enshrined in it. They also called the cleared land "Akiba ga hara" or "Akibappara" which means "the deity Akiba's square". - 1888: The shrine moved to Matsugaya, near AsakusaAsakusais a district in Taitō, Tokyo, Japan, most famous for the Sensō-ji, a Buddhist temple dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon. There are several other temples in Asakusa, as well as various festivals.- History :...
. - 1890: Extension of the rail line (now the Tōhoku Main Line) from Ueno to Akihabara. At first there was no passenger service, for south of the station was the Akihabara cargo docks, where goods from all over the world would flow into Kanda by river and be hauled up the east bank of the canal to be ticketed at the central cargo transport window.
- From the MeijiMeiji periodThe , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
to the Shōwa periodShowa periodThe , or Shōwa era, is the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of the Shōwa Emperor, Hirohito, from December 25, 1926 through January 7, 1989.The Shōwa period was longer than the reign of any previous Japanese emperor...
, as the electric railway improved transport to Akihabara and the surrounds, and especially due to the growth in dealerships, the district was designated as Seika Ichiba (: vegetables and fruits market). - 1925: Akihabara-Tokyo station connection opened as the Tohoku lineKeihin-Tohoku LineThe , is a railway line in Japan which connects the cities of Saitama, Kawaguchi, Tokyo, Kawasaki, and Yokohama. It is part of the East Japan Railway Company network. The line's name is derived from the characters for , and the...
extended to Tokyo. - 1930: The temporary Manseibashi Subway Station opens; it is closed in November 1931.
- 1935: Official establishment of Seika Ichiba. (Kanda Seika Ichiba).
- 1936: The site of Manseibashi Station was closed (later the Transportation Museum—now closed). Railway mania had reached its zenith. The area became the number one place for electrical supplies.
- Circa 1945-1955 After World War II, a black market at Kanda developed around the first school of electrical manufacturing (now the Tokyo Denki UniversityTokyo Denki Universityis a private university in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The predecessor of the school was founded in 1907. It was chartered as a university in 1949 with Yasujiro Niwa as first president.-External links:* *...
:). Clustered around the Sobu Main line, what began as a host of electrical stores selling vacuum tubeVacuum tubeIn electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , or thermionic valve , reduced to simply "tube" or "valve" in everyday parlance, is a device that relies on the flow of electric current through a vacuum...
s, radio goods and electrical items to the students, has today come to be known as Electric Town. Called "musen" or "wireless" shops, they were the first to begin selling radios. With the advent of wireless and radio goods, people came to be much more connected. - 1960s: Thanks to advanced technology, the rival Nipponbashi district of OsakaOsakais a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
took its position as an equally prominent Electric Town, selling vast volumes of household consumerConsumerConsumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.-Economics and marketing:...
durable goodDurable goodIn economics, a durable good or a hard good is a good that does not quickly wear out, or more specifically, one that yields utility over time rather than being completely consumed in one use. Items like bricks or jewellery could be considered perfectly durable goods, because they should...
s such as televisions, refrigeratorRefrigeratorA refrigerator is a common household appliance that consists of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump that transfers heat from the inside of the fridge to its external environment so that the inside of the fridge is cooled to a temperature below the ambient temperature of the room...
s and washing machineWashing machineA washing machine is a machine designed to wash laundry, such as clothing, towels and sheets...
s. - 1980s: Accompanying the spread of the personal computerPersonal computerA personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
in family homes ("Famikon"), local shops increasingly began to deal in computer games, and major gaming chain stores appeared on the market. - 1989: Kanda Seika Ichiba moved to Ōta-ku, south district of Tokyo.
- 1990s: With the Yamada and Kojima household chain stores appearing throughout the suburban outskirts of Tokyo, the sale of consumer durables at Akihabara was greatly reduced, but the sale of computer goods increased in equal measure.
- 1991:SofmapSofmapSofmap Co., Ltd. is a Japanese retailer which sells both new and used electronics. It is a subsidiary of Bic Camera.-External links:...
begins its rise as a major seller of new and used Japan-market computer parts and software, including popular systems from NECNEC, a Japanese multinational IT company, has its headquarters in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC, part of the Sumitomo Group, provides information technology and network solutions to business enterprises, communications services providers and government....
(PC-8801 and 9801), SharpSharp Corporationis a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products. Headquartered in Abeno-ku, Osaka, Japan, Sharp employs more than 55,580 people worldwide as of June 2011. The company was founded in September 1912 and takes its name from one of its founder's first...
(X68000) and FujitsuFujitsuis a Japanese multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is the world's third-largest IT services provider measured by revenues....
(FM-Towns). Sofmap chain stores begin popping up in different locations in Akihabara. - 1994: The Windows PC boom and accompanying computer store growth began.
- It was also during the 1990s that the anime craze grew out of computer games, and the youth group known as otaku began to pour into Akihabara.
- Since 2000, with name-brand computer sales in decline, anime shops have arisen in their place, selling to the otaku crowd.
- August 25, 2005: Tsukuba Express, Tokyo's fastest private railway, opens in Akihabara.
- Since 2005 Major redevelopment and modernization of the station and surrounding area.
- June 8, 2008: The Akihabara massacreAkihabara massacreThe was an incident of mass murder that took place on Sunday, June 8, 2008, in the Akihabara shopping quarter for electronics, video games and comics in Sotokanda, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan.At 12:33 p.m...
took place on the Sunday-pedestrian-zoned Chūōdōri street. A man killed seven in an attack on a crowd using a truck and a daggerDaggerA dagger is a fighting knife with a sharp point designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon. The design dates to human prehistory, and daggers have been used throughout human experience to the modern day in close combat confrontations...
. - January 23, 2011: The pedestrian zone Akihabara's Chūōdōri High Street is reopened 2 1/2 years after the massacre with a memorial service and new rules.
Police station
is a station of Tokyo Metropolitan Police DepartmentTokyo Metropolitan Police Department
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department serves as the police force for the entire Tokyo metropolis. Founded in 1874, it is headed by a superintendent general, who is appointed by the National Public Safety Commission and approved by the prime minister.The Metropolitan Police, with a staff of more...
. The station takes its name from the nearby bridge, Manseibashi
Manseibashi
is a concrete single arch bridge across the Kanda River in Chiyoda, Tokyo. Two public transport stations and a police station nearby are named after this bridge....
. The area north of the bridge is Akihabara Electric Town".
The station is located slightly east of the Mansei bridge (35°41′50.2"N 139°46′18.5"E), on the Akihabara side of the Kanda River. In addition to the police station, the building houses other government offices.
The station began as a substation of Kanda Police Station in April 1905. It was disbanded a year later, but re-established in various forms until June 1927, when it was established as the Kanda Manseibashi Police Station. It moved back in with the Kanda station after the station was destroyed in the World War II fire-bombing of Tokyo
Bombing of Tokyo in World War II
The bombing of Tokyo, often referred to as a "firebombing", was conducted by the United States Army Air Forces during the Pacific campaigns of World War II. The U.S. mounted a small-scale raid on Tokyo in April 1942, with large morale effects...
. In November 1948 the station was re-established under its present name, Manseibashi Police Station.
See also
- ŌsuŌsuŌsu is a popular area located in the Naka ward of Nagoya, central Japan.Ōsu is a historic area which has many small shops offering everything from Japanese traditional food to handicrafts. A large department store is OSU301...
, in Nagoya - NipponbashiNipponbashiis a shopping district of Naniwa Ward, Osaka, Japan. The area is centered along Sakaisuji Avenue, extending from the Ebisu-chō Interchange of the Hanshin Expressway in the south, to Nansan-dōri in the north...
, in Osaka - Tourism in JapanTourism in JapanTourism in Japan attracted 8.3 million foreign visitors in 2008, slightly more than Singapore and Ireland. Japan has 16 World Heritage Sites, including Himeji Castle and Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto . Kyoto receives over 30 million tourists annually...
- Akiba-keiAkiba-keior is a Japanese slang term similar in meaning to otaku.-Definition:Akiba-kei is a Japanese slang term meaning "Akihabara style". It dates back to the early 80s and refers to a subset of otaku, now largely older males, who spend much of their time in and around the Akihabara area of Tokyo and are...
Further reading
- JPT Staff, Makoto Nakajima (2008). The Akiba. Japan Publications Trading. ISBN 9784889962499
External links
- Akihabara Official website
- In Tokyo, a Ghetto of Geeks from Washington Post
- Akihabara Geeks (2005) Documentary