According to the results of a study released by Nomura Research Institute in Japan on the 24th, there are 2,850,000 people considered "otaku" in Japan, with a combined market power of around $2.6 billion. More here. I'm sure members of all these different segments of Otaku society will be excited by this though.


In other news I've been downloading a lot of Ali G episodes lately. Ali G is a gangsta boy character of an unknown ethnicity played by a Jewish comedian from England named Sasha Cohen. His schtick is to get people to expose their various prejudices by acting stupid, gay or racist. I think this anti-semetic song his character Borat sings is going to be a big hit pretty soon. While Ali G has been around a long time in the U.K. he's only now becoming famous in the U.S. as his show has begun getting airplay on HBO.