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"Butler" Cafe Opens in Akiba April 1st

As Japanese otaku and anime fans have regained a little bit of their social standing in recent years, "maid" cafes - coffee shops where a mostly male clientele are waited on by waitresses dressed up like maids - have appeared in cities all over Japan. In Akihabara, the anime and electronics shopping mecca for many otaku, the cafes have become a huge part of the landscape. Ironically, the same area is now launching the alternative to maid cafes: the "Butler" cafe.

According to Japanese news site Mantan Web, the cafe will open on April 1st in Akihabara. Using the tagline "A [cafe] atmosphere for ladies", the cafe follows a chess motif, complete with well dressed "butlers" to wait on the guests. Mantan Web has launched a column documenting the progress of the cafe before and after its grand opening.

The cafe is a side project of the RightNow company. The company also runs the maid cafe "Pinafore," which was used for the maid cafe scenes in the live action TV Drama version of Densha Otoko (Train Man). RightNow company president Miyazaki Eiji said in a statement about the cafe, "Although Akiba culture has been mostly geared towards males, e would like to create a new culture for women."

There is already a butler cafe in Ikebukuro, another district of Tokyo.