Forum - View topicINTEREST: Asagaya Anime Street to Close After Failing to Draw Crowds
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aodmisery
Posts: 75 |
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Isn't Akihabara already anime themed
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unready
 Posts: 416 Location: Illinois, USA |
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As described in the article, Asagaya Street is a government-created district to be an alternative to Akihabara's shopping district. Akihabara is in Chiyoda (east of Shinjuku and Shibuya). Asagaya is in Suginami (west of Shijuku and Shibuya). |
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Greboruri
Posts: 393 Location: QBN, NSW, Australia |
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Went there in late 2015. Five of the 14 shops were unoccupied and the remaining ones that were still open were rubbish. It was an absolute waste of time and train fare going out there. You cannot manufacture something like Akihabara or Nakano Broadway. There was nothing of real interest for fans there that they couldn't get elsewhere.
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sailorstarsun
 Posts: 175 Location: Japan |
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Honestly, did Tokyo really need another anime area anyway? Maybe they should try something like that in literally any other city in Japan.
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omoikane
Posts: 494 |
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Actually, they could. It's definitely big enough for multiple areas (as it already has). The issue is always in why and how it's executed. |
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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The stated purpose was to drive people closer to the areas where most studios are located. Considering how epically far from the rest of the anime shopping in Tokyo that is, yeah, this wasn't an inherently bad idea. Suginami is kind of a dead zone for tourism and shopping as is, so something like this probably could have worked if implemented in a different way. |
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ranran-001
Posts: 549 |
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I've seen a program recently on shopping districts in Japan and it highlighted the fact that the internet, as well as the general way in which people are consuming media has created many deadzones where their used to be streets lined with shops. Think of it as the same problem small towns in the U.S. with a main street are facing as one by one they go out of business since many customers prefer to buy online, or go to larger department stores like walmart.
This article on ANN sounds like one of the revival projects that same television program talked about. The government most likely picked an area that used to be a busy shopping district years ago and tried to revive it by turning it into an otaku themed shopping area. The show I watched never got into how successful the revival attempts have been, but there have been hints that these revivals have not been successful yet. I can't say for sure if that is indeed what is going on here, but it sounds like this could be what the local government was trying to attempt. |
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Mikasa_su_casa
Posts: 120 |
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This is the kind of thing the Japanese state thinks it's important to spend money on when they could be trying to get single moms get out of poverty?
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Compelled to Reply
 Posts: 358 |
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Suginami is out in the suburbs, so that doesn't help. It also certainly doesn't help Nakano is two stops east.
It's likely a local government project, not national. Single parent poverty is an issue everywhere, which no country has yet has success in addressing effectively. |
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