User:Tranak/Butlers Café

History

Maid cafés, where waitresses dress as maids to serve a primarily male clientele, achieved widespread popularity in Japan in the early 2000s. Butler cafés were conceived in response to their popularity, after entrepreneurs noted a rise in Internet message board postings from women who sought a "role-reversing alternative" to maid cafés. In addition, unlike male otaku, female otaku are viewed negatively so these cafes serve as a safe space for female otaku to enjoy their leisure time with fellow otaku. Women expressed their desire for an establishment where they could seek male companionship in an environment that was less costly than a host club, and more romantic and safe than a nightclub. Butlers were chosen as a male counterpart to maids, and to appeal to fairy tale princess fantasies.

The first butler café, Swallowtail, opened in March 2005. Swallowtail is located on Otome Road, a major shopping and cultural destination for female otaku in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, and was founded by management consulting firm Oriental Corporation and the anime and manga goods chain K-Books. According to Ayako Abe, executive director of K-books and also manages Swallowtail, has stated the Swallowtail was successful as more than 3,000 customers came in, so approximately 100 a day, within a month since it opened. In 2006, the café Butlers Café opened in Shibuya, Tokyo. Founded by former office worker Yuki Hirohata, Butlers Café employed a staff composed entirely of Western men, and allowed patrons to practice English with the butlers. Butlers Café closed in December 2018.

Characteristics

While maid cafés typically promote the physical attractiveness of the servers as their major selling point, butler cafés, although most butlers are also physically attractive, they devote significant resources to environment, ambiance, and high quality service. The central conceit of a butler café is that the customer is treated as an aristocrat who has returned to their home for tea, where they are waited on by a personal butler. Customers are "welcomed home" upon entering and referred to with honorary titles, with female customers referred to as ojōsama ("milady") or ohimesama ("princess") and male customers as bocchan ("young lord") or dannasama ("master"). Butlers may even take the time to inform the customer of the style of the decor and thoroughly describe the items on the menu. High-quality food is served (the menu of Swallowtail was developed by Paul Okada, the food and beverage director at the Four Seasons Tokyo), and the interior of the restaurant is typically designed to resemble an English country house or manor house with imported and custom furniture. English-style afternoon tea is the most commonly-served food at butler cafés, including cakes, scones, sandwiches, and tea served in fine porcelain cups, which may also be the café's own custom ceramics.

Butlers typically range in age from 18 to 60, though some butlers are as old as 80, and receive extended training in tea preparation, etiquette, and restaurant service standards. The training process could take months, and applicants are required to pass a test based on hotel restaurant standards. Job titles for butlers correspond to those of household staff, including "house steward" for the most senior manager and "footman" for servers. Butlers also occasionally appear in musicals, stage plays and concerts organized by the café, and sell souvenirs and CDs.

Although photography is usually not permitted in these cafes, some may allow it as an additional service added onto the experience. Butlers Cafe in particular offer additional services such as Lift Me Up Photo, where the butler lifts up the customer, princess-style for a picture, Cinderella Time, where the customer receives bubbles, sweets, a tiara, and a silver bell on a platter, and Study English, where customers receive a notebook to exchange notes in English with their butler for each visit.

There are certain rules that must be followed between the customer and butlers. Neither should share personal information, butlers are not allowed to touch the customer, unless for a special exception such as a the photo service. Butlers may only give their first names, hobbies, and countries of origin when engaging in conversation, and customers should not ask personal questions or try to meet or be in contact outside of the cafe space.

At Butlers Cafe, party services that are 2-3 hours long are offered for special occasions such as birthdays or groups of 4-15 customers.

Analysis and impact

Anime and manga scholar Susan J. Napier argues that butler cafés represent a widening of otaku culture to be inclusive of girls and women, but notes that the popularity of butler cafés does not necessarily represent a loosening of the culture's gender roles and expectations, stating that "maid and butler cafes, if anything, are reinforcing gender distinctions." Manga artist Keiko Takemiya "does not place great cultural significance" on butler cafés, but argues that they "allow Japanese women a chance to be served and escape their traditional role of serving men." Similar to a local bar for white-collar Japanese men, butler cafes are a parallel to women who wish to detach themselves from the pressures of the world.

Maid cafes and butler cafes are a manifestation of the influence of anime and manga. Cosplay is no longer about just dressing up as favorite characters from anime and manga and reserved only to otaku conventions, but has expanded to cosplay in real-life. They have become destinations for otaku tourism, in which customers solely visit these cafes because of the media, in this case depiction of maid and butler themes depicted within anime and manga. In other words, popular culture has become a resource for Japanese tourism.

Butlers Cafe has been referred to as a common fantasy among Japanese women made real. Considering that the cafe employed a staff composed entirely of Western men, this reinforces the notion of Western males as an alluring object to Japanese women. Places like Butlers Cafe becomes a liberating space where Japanese women can delve into the alternate other, which differs from Japanese men who are viewed to not be capable of what Western men are: being a gentleman. Although Western males are viewed to know how to treat women well, sometimes their approach is intimidating to Japanese women. Because of this, owner of Butlers Cafe, Yuki Hirohata prioritized teaching the foreign butlers Japanese culture so that Japanese women could feel more at ease with their experience.

In 2006, Swallowtail reported serving more than 1,000 customers per month; at its peak, Butlers Café reported having 2,000 regular customers. Swallowtail reports that 80 percent of their customers are female, with women in their 20s and 30s forming the majority of their clientele. Butler cafés are additionally noted as having found particular popularity among fans of yaoi (male–male romance fiction) in their 30s and 40s.