The Seibu Railway Group has announced plans to introduce a new maid cafe-style train service between Ikebukuro and Chichibu stations.
Akihabara’s maid cafe culture is closely aligned with Japan’s “otaku” subculture that is continuing to go mainstream. As several animation houses already exist along that stretch of the railway line that runs from Tokyo to Saitama, Seibu Railway officials said they are hoping to promote Japanese pop culture in the area between those stations by solidifying its reputation as an anime production zone.
It is believed to be the first time a major Kanto rail operator has attempted to carry out such an unconventional project.
The emphasis of the new service will be to allow passengers to ride in “New Red Arrow” trains alongside staff selected from Akihabara’s maid cafes. Maid cafe games and competitions will be held and train announcements will be made by the maids. There are also plans to have small photography studios alongside the station shops around Seibu Chichibu station at which customers can pay to have their photographs taken with a maid.
The fare for a trip will be 3,500 yen for adults and 3,000 yen for children. Each trip will accommodate 360 passengers.
The service starts on Dec 11. For reservations, visit http://maidtrain.info
Comments
you guys need to stop wasting your time comment to website if you don’t know nothing much about japan
V. true is Asian culture superior. I can go to Bangkok and get my own maid for $10 a week and do nice things with her. Manila, Loas, Cambodia the same etc….. Japanese women are free and act like maids which is a win win.
by provocative underwear, do u mean fluffy pink poodle patterned grandma panties? Cuz I have a comparatively tough time finding sexy thongs like I could at Victoria’s Secret.
And the whole point of maids is not to be sexually aggresive (more or equal to or slightly less) to a man, but be completely subservient. I think that is what makes some women not like the maid cafe thing. it just pigeonholes women in the whole MAID, SUBSERVIENT, WEAK, MAN IS MASTER thing. it just feeds egos, men need to man up and learn to handle a woman, not a child. (LOL and by woman, I don’t mean ‘curvy, aka FAT’ or middle aged, just a woman that can string 2 words together without talking like a chipmunk or giggle like her brain is made of jello, haha)
yeah its kinda sad. Just as in America, some things are really sad. Here I’m not hating on one country more than the other, just each have their issues. And civil rights issues is something that seems to have overlooked the developement of Japan as a 1rst world country. This goes back to comfort women, the govt overlooking atrocities, etc etc. Of course America has its share of crap, but not in THIS way. And this IS a website about Japan, so..
not all women that are foreigners are fat :/
opinion doesn’t mean you can assume something about these women that don’t think too high of it. Anyway, I hope you are a woman so you can understand and give a full viewed opinion on women’s issues. And fyi, I know plenty asian and JAPANESE women that don’t think much of these things. Just they don’t speak up. I wonder why :/
it’s true, in America also it happens, degradation of women. However, in Japan, there is less speaking out about these issues.
The problem that I can see with the maid thing , and why I think it’s a bit disturbing, is that it makes women in the PASSIVE, SUBSERVIENT role, much more even than Hooters, which is a more sexually role.
BTW, I’m not bitter, but as a woman I have been “molested/blamed on/asked ‘what I was wearing’/the pervert slightly more excused/asked to ignore it” combination more in Japan than in another western country (counting even a developing country).
So the problem is, SUBSERVIENT leads to NO VOICE leads to HAVING TO GAMAN more than a woman should.
Just so ppl stop wondering why ppl get their panties in a twist over this. It’s a whole package. And btw, I dunno if ANON has noticed, but many maids are kinda fat actually, just smaller framed in comparison, but not delicate, long limbed, gracefully shaped either, so I don’t think I would be jealous, lol.
How ignorant.
See, the above conversation is a perfect example of how Asian culture is superior to Western culture. Westerners are uptight and quick to offend, Asians are playful and don’t take things too seriously.
Ken where have you been your short life? What about Hooters and those new Topless Cafes in the US? Ask the women who serve in these places and they’ll say they work there for the money. The more desperate and economically depressed an area becomes the more daring businesses become and the workers more willing.
Stop acting so righteous when YOU are the one degrading those women saying they are second class. None of the maids or customers find them to be second class citizens. Only asshat gaijins who only have superficial knowledge about the culture and don’t care to know more because they think westerners know it all. If you don’t know what’s wrong with them, then I suggest you visit a few cafes; talk to the maids and the customers. Then you will realize that it’s utter crap that you just spewed.
Is it second class to work as a waitress; to pour and stir coffee for customers? Is it second class to be a masseuse? Is it second class if girls like to dress up in Victorian costumes?
Whatever perverted thoughts guys have about the maids have nothing to do with the social standing of these women. The maid-cafe industry originates from anime as these girls put on an act. The Japanese take great pride in their job and their service industry, so they never saw the Victorian maids as lowlife servants according to Western values. Stop treating the maid-cafe culture as a sex-industry.
Mono locco – I am guessing you are a pathetic gaijin who had to come to Japan for a real life partner, I think you are the desperate one. I try not to impose my western cultural values on a culture and society I didn’t grow up in. Instead, I try to appreciate the differences and not judge the way Japanese people enjoy their life. While I enjoy looking at cute girls in cos-play; have fun drowning in your own ignorance you downie
Yeah, because Japan is the only country in the world that objectifies women.
Unlike the United States where women are empowered and there are no restaurants with large breasted women in skimpy t-shirts and shorts serving men.
Either that or the line will be over run with Otaku, horny old men or desperate loser gaijin who seem to go stupid over these kids of girls. Also these people I have mentioned would be stupid enough to pay for their train tickets and on top pay extra just to be able to talk to a girl dressed in a cos-play costume while perving and having dreams of what it would be like to be with a real girl LOL ^^
you must be one desperate gaijin mate to write a coment like this.
It’s people like you that put us gaijin to shame.
Go back to that hole you came from and keep looking at girls in their cos-play maid costumes. While the rest of us have gfs, wives and real life partners that we share a life with in the real world ^^
so i can see it now:
me: walking on the train suddenly there maids everywhere with butler’s to boot, steps off train to check to see if it really a train.
female maid: may i help you sir
me: is this really a train?
her: yes
me: ok then
as for the comments about this being a bad thing, im on too you, you want to wear them dont you. Right dont give me that i have you figured out…………..
I can guarantee the negative commenters are fat foreign women who are just jeleous and would love to fit in to cos-play outfits so please ladies give it a rest and bark up another tree.
This is absolutely wrong, on all levels. What are Seibu thinking ?
Maids doing train announcements ? Take your photo with a maid ?
Next thling they’ll be having the train drivers dress up as maids, complete with provocative
underwear.
These young girls are a nuisance in Akihabara, and now it seems they’re gonna be all over the railway system on that Seibu Saitama stretch. I give it a month or so before the first train fatalities begin.
What is wrong with having a woman maid! Seriously there should be more important agendas for feminists!
When I went to a maid cafe with my wife the people inside were as follows. 5 single women, a mother and two sons, a mother with a son and daughter, 3 couples (including ourselves) and a group of 4 men. Therefore there were more women than men enjoying the maid cafe which would suggest that it isn’t derogatory (otherwise why would women go?) There was nothing perverse about my experience to a maid cafe anyway and the women work there out of free will, so I don’t see what the problem is.
im pretty sure they are not doing it for free
So have any of the commenters actually been to a maid cafe? I would say that the clientele was fairly diverse when I went to an Akihabara cafe. Admittedly there was one group of young men there, but they seemed pretty harmless. And they were certainly outnumbered by the middle aged women and teen couples on dates.
Sure there is a part of Japanese culture that sexualise maids (as I’m sure there is in many cultures), but maid cafes are pretty innocent places. Certainly not perverse or a place in which women are treated as second class citizens.
Treating women as objects! Why do Japanese women stand for it? Do they always like being second class citizens? What is wrong with them?
Instead of emphasizing culture that is derogatory, perhaps emphasize culture associated with an older Japan.
This is disgusting. As if women weren’t objectified enough . . . now the railroad is legitimizing objectification, stereotypes, and perversity. Ohhhh Japan.
This is what the downfall of Japan looks like.