Cosplay restaurant

Maids promoting cafes in Akihabara, Tokyo

Cosplay restaurants (コスプレ系飲食店, Kosupure-kei inshokuten) are theme restaurants and pubs that originated in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan, around the late 1990s and early 2000s.[1][2][3] They include maid cafés (メイドカフェ, Meido kafe) and butler cafés (執事喫茶, shitsuji kissa), where the service staff dress as elegant maids, or as butlers. The staff treat the customers as masters and mistresses in a private home rather than merely as café customers. Such restaurants and cafés have quickly become a staple of Japanese otaku culture.

The popularity of cosplay restaurants and maid cafes has spread to other regions in Japan, such as Osaka's Den Den Town as well as to places outside Japan, such as Hong Kong,[4] Taiwan,[5] Singapore,[6] Mexico,[7] Canada,[8] and the Philippines.[9]

  1. ^ A Quantum City: Mastering the Generic
  2. ^ Piers, Chris (May 11, 2016). "The Origins and History of Cosplay". The Robot's Pajamas. Archived from the original on June 17, 2017.
  3. ^ Best Cosplay Cafés in Tokyo
  4. ^ "A Visit to Mongkok's Japanese 'Maid Cafe'". Hong Wrong. October 2, 2013. Retrieved November 3, 2019.
  5. ^ "Google Maps". Google Maps. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  6. ^ Ang, Veron (February 18, 2012). "Cawaii Koohii Maid Cafe – Fun Cosplay Café in Singapore".
  7. ^ "Google Maps". Google Maps. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  8. ^ "Google Maps". Google Maps. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  9. ^ "MeiDolls Cosplay Cafe in Manila • Our Awesome Planet". Our Awesome Planet. April 27, 2011. Retrieved November 16, 2019.