When did otaku become a derogatory term?


_Related:[Is the term Otaku
derogatory?](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/3410)_

* * *

I have been reading [_The Moe
Manifesto_](https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0804848882) lately, and
noticed in a lot of the interviews, the term _otaku_ was never really used in
a derogatory form.

One of the interviews in particular mentioned something about otaku only
becoming a derogatory term _after_ some serial killer, which was found vaguely
related to the anime culture, killed a bunch of children. However I could not
find any credible online sources to confirm this.

This does however raise my question, when did _otaku_ become a derogatory
term?

**Edit**

> Actually now that i started to look into it a bit it seems it has always
> been a derogatory term at least in Japan, but the situation seems to improve
> nowdays - [Proxy](https://anime.stackexchange.com/users/27678/proxy)

During the interview with [Otsuka
Eiji](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiji_%C5%8Ctsuka)

> **_patrick w galbraith_**  
>  how should we define otaku?
>
> **_Otsuka Eiji_**  
>  To tell the truth, I dont really know. The word otaku was first used by
> writer [Nakimori Akio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akio_Nakamori) in
> [manga Burikko](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga_Burikko), back in 1983
> when I was in my twenties and working as the magazines editor. It was the
> first time the term was publicly used to refer to enthusiastic manga and
> anime fans...
>
> **_patrick w galbraith_**  
>  Why do you think Nakamori chose this particular word to refer to Japanese
> fans?
>
> **_Otsuka Eiji_**  
>  The term otaku is a second person pronoun equivalent to you. It was used
> among scifi fans in the 1970s. By the 1980s the market for manga and anime
> had expanded and it supported a wide variety of specialty magazine, which
> provided space for new artist to work in niches.




According to the first paragraph of the [Wikipedia
article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otaku) (emphasis mine):

> **Otaku** (おたく/オタク) is a Japanese term for people with obsessive interests,
> particularly in _anime_ and _manga_. Its contemporary use originated with
> Akio Nakamori's 1983 essay in _Manga
> Burikko_.[[1](http://www.burikko.net/people/otaku01.html)][[2](http://neojaponisme.com/2008/04/02/what-
> kind-of-otaku-are-you/)] Otaku may be used as a pejorative; **its negativity
> stems from a stereotypical view of otaku and the media's reporting on
> Tsutomu Miyazaki, "The Otaku Murderer", in 1989. According to studies
> published in 2013, the term has become less negative,** and an increasing
> number of people now self-identify as _otaku_
> ,[[3](https://web.archive.org/web/20130703184904/http://news.mynavi.jp/news/2013/04/27/076)]
> both in Japan and elsewhere.

The first two sources are references to Nakamori's essay, where [source
2](http://neojaponisme.com/2008/04/02/what-kind-of-otaku-are-you/) is a
translated rendition of that essay.

Wikipedia goes on to mention that two animators, Haruhiko Mikimoto and Shōji
Kawamori, had used the term お宅 (おたく| _otaku_ ) as a formal, second person
pronoun ("you"), which allegedly "some fans used... past the point in their
relationships where others would have moved on to a less formal style."

The [jisho.org](https://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%8A%E5%AE%85) entry explains:

> **お宅（おたく）**
>
> Pronoun
>
>   4. you (referring to someone of equal status with whom one is not
> especially close)​
>
> Honorific or respectful (sonkeigo)
>
>

This awkward use of the pronoun led to Nakamori choosing it to refer to anime
fans, seemingly to characterize their social awkwardness (Though Wikipedia
cites the Chinese edition of a book called _Otaku Shijou no Kenkyuu_ , this
appears to be backed up by [Nakamori's second essay on
_otaku_](http://www.burikko.net/people/otaku02.html), from what I can
understand of it).

So what does this mean? Was the term _otaku_ derogatory from the start? It
seems like it was. [According to Lawrence
Eng](https://www.cjas.org/~leng/otaku-p.htm), who completed a PhD dissertation
on the topic of otaku culture (emphasis mine):

> In 1983, the first published report appeared on the usage of " _otaku_ "
> amongst fans. Akio Nakamori wrote a series of articles called " _Otaku no
> Kenkyu_ " (Studies of Otaku) in _Manga Burikko_. He called those hard core
> fans who called each other " _otaku_ " the " _otaku-zoku_ " (" _zoku_ "
> meaning tribe). His was perhaps the first article **stereotyping _otaku_ as
> being anti-social, unkempt, and unpopular.** I've heard that the column was
> short-lived, and it didn't have a large impact on _otaku_ culture (who
> pretty much ignored or was already used to such unfair stereotyping and
> discrimination).

Following the coining of the phrase, the so-called _Otaku_ Murderer came into
the public mind, which certainly didn't do the _otaku_ crowd any favors, as
you have already mentioned.

So back to that [third
source](https://web.archive.org/web/20130703184904/http://news.mynavi.jp/news/2013/04/27/076)
cited by the Wikipedia article. In 2013, in a study of 137,734 people, 42.2%
answered that they think they are in some part " _otaku_ ," and the other
57.8% said they did not. The article continues by breaking down the results by
age range (teens, twenties, thirties, and so on):

>   * 10代：62.0％
>   * 20代：55.6％
>   * 30代：46.4％
>   * 40代：44.8％
>   * 50代：36.7％
>   * 60代：26.9％
>   * 70代：23.1％
>   * 80代：23.3％
>

From this data, we can guess that somewhere during the '80s and the '90s (when
people who are in their 50s and 40s now were in their 20s, and had grown up
with anime and manga), the term _otaku_ became more popular, and that trend
has increased such that a majority of today's (Japanese) teenagers would
consider themselves in some part _otaku_ , and thus it would appear that the
term is no longer considered quite as derogatory as it once may have been. The
article also offers three examples of answers given by people who responded
that they identify as _otaku_ , which may shed some light on the reasons
behind the mentality shift (translations mine, take them with a grain of
salt):

>   * 「サッカーオタク。熱中できる趣味というより、熱中できる気力があるの良いこと」
>
> "[I'm a] soccer _otaku_. Rather than being about an enjoyable hobby, it's
> having the energy to be passionate about something"
>
>   * 「好きなゲームの話題だと、何時間でも話してしまいそう」
>
> "If there's a game you like, you'd probably end up talking about it for
> hours"
>
>   * 「海外ドラマ＆その声優オタクでっすw」
>
> "im an _otaku_ for foreign dramas and their voice actors lol"
>
>

This is just my speculation, but it's almost as if the term _otaku_ has become
diversified from its original connotation of an obsessiveness over anime and
manga specifically. In other words, nowadays one can be an _otaku_ for just
about anything, which may be the reason for which it's become more of a
popular term.

* * *

### Conclusion (TL;DR)

The term _otaku_ seems to have initially been coined to characterize certain
negative stereotypes about anime and manga super fans, but over time has
become more accepted—to the point that a majority of Japanese teens would say
they identify as being, in some part, _otaku_.




According to the first paragraph of the [Wikipedia
article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otaku) (emphasis mine):

> **Otaku** (おたく/オタク) is a Japanese term for people with obsessive interests,
> particularly in _anime_ and _manga_. Its contemporary use originated with
> Akio Nakamori's 1983 essay in _Manga
> Burikko_.[[1](http://www.burikko.net/people/otaku01.html)][[2](http://neojaponisme.com/2008/04/02/what-
> kind-of-otaku-are-you/)] Otaku may be used as a pejorative; **its negativity
> stems from a stereotypical view of otaku and the media's reporting on
> Tsutomu Miyazaki, "The Otaku Murderer", in 1989. According to studies
> published in 2013, the term has become less negative,** and an increasing
> number of people now self-identify as _otaku_
> ,[[3](https://web.archive.org/web/20130703184904/http://news.mynavi.jp/news/2013/04/27/076)]
> both in Japan and elsewhere.

The first two sources are references to Nakamori's essay, where [source
2](http://neojaponisme.com/2008/04/02/what-kind-of-otaku-are-you/) is a
translated rendition of that essay.

Wikipedia goes on to mention that two animators, Haruhiko Mikimoto and Shōji
Kawamori, had used the term お宅 (おたく| _otaku_ ) as a formal, second person
pronoun ("you"), which allegedly "some fans used... past the point in their
relationships where others would have moved on to a less formal style."

The [jisho.org](https://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%8A%E5%AE%85) entry explains:

> **お宅（おたく）**
>
> Pronoun
>
>   4. you (referring to someone of equal status with whom one is not
> especially close)​
>
> Honorific or respectful (sonkeigo)
>
>

This awkward use of the pronoun led to Nakamori choosing it to refer to anime
fans, seemingly to characterize their social awkwardness (Though Wikipedia
cites the Chinese edition of a book called _Otaku Shijou no Kenkyuu_ , this
appears to be backed up by [Nakamori's second essay on
_otaku_](http://www.burikko.net/people/otaku02.html), from what I can
understand of it).

So what does this mean? Was the term _otaku_ derogatory from the start? It
seems like it was. [According to Lawrence
Eng](https://www.cjas.org/~leng/otaku-p.htm), who completed a PhD dissertation
on the topic of otaku culture (emphasis mine):

> In 1983, the first published report appeared on the usage of " _otaku_ "
> amongst fans. Akio Nakamori wrote a series of articles called " _Otaku no
> Kenkyu_ " (Studies of Otaku) in _Manga Burikko_. He called those hard core
> fans who called each other " _otaku_ " the " _otaku-zoku_ " (" _zoku_ "
> meaning tribe). His was perhaps the first article **stereotyping _otaku_ as
> being anti-social, unkempt, and unpopular.** I've heard that the column was
> short-lived, and it didn't have a large impact on _otaku_ culture (who
> pretty much ignored or was already used to such unfair stereotyping and
> discrimination).

Following the coining of the phrase, the so-called _Otaku_ Murderer came into
the public mind, which certainly didn't do the _otaku_ crowd any favors, as
you have already mentioned.

So back to that [third
source](https://web.archive.org/web/20130703184904/http://news.mynavi.jp/news/2013/04/27/076)
cited by the Wikipedia article. In 2013, in a study of 137,734 people, 42.2%
answered that they think they are in some part " _otaku_ ," and the other
57.8% said they did not. The article continues by breaking down the results by
age range (teens, twenties, thirties, and so on):

>   * 10代：62.0％
>   * 20代：55.6％
>   * 30代：46.4％
>   * 40代：44.8％
>   * 50代：36.7％
>   * 60代：26.9％
>   * 70代：23.1％
>   * 80代：23.3％
>

From this data, we can guess that somewhere during the '80s and the '90s (when
people who are in their 50s and 40s now were in their 20s, and had grown up
with anime and manga), the term _otaku_ became more popular, and that trend
has increased such that a majority of today's (Japanese) teenagers would
consider themselves in some part _otaku_ , and thus it would appear that the
term is no longer considered quite as derogatory as it once may have been. The
article also offers three examples of answers given by people who responded
that they identify as _otaku_ , which may shed some light on the reasons
behind the mentality shift (translations mine, take them with a grain of
salt):

>   * 「サッカーオタク。熱中できる趣味というより、熱中できる気力があるの良いこと」
>
> "[I'm a] soccer _otaku_. Rather than being about an enjoyable hobby, it's
> having the energy to be passionate about something"
>
>   * 「好きなゲームの話題だと、何時間でも話してしまいそう」
>
> "If there's a game you like, you'd probably end up talking about it for
> hours"
>
>   * 「海外ドラマ＆その声優オタクでっすw」
>
> "im an _otaku_ for foreign dramas and their voice actors lol"
>
>

This is just my speculation, but it's almost as if the term _otaku_ has become
diversified from its original connotation of an obsessiveness over anime and
manga specifically. In other words, nowadays one can be an _otaku_ for just
about anything, which may be the reason for which it's become more of a
popular term.

* * *

### Conclusion (TL;DR)

The term _otaku_ seems to have initially been coined to characterize certain
negative stereotypes about anime and manga super fans, but over time has
become more accepted—to the point that a majority of Japanese teens would say
they identify as being, in some part, _otaku_.

