Mondo Tokyo: Dispatches from a Secret Japan

Tokyo, in the early aughts, was a weird place. Lonely single men wanted to marry action figures instead of women. High school girls worked at maid cafes and were paid to act like Manga characters. Nightclubs filled with kids in anime cosplay who danced to remixed versions of cartoon theme songs.

People’s private obsessions, once confined to bedrooms and computer screens, were transforming entire city blocks.

Long before global media, Pharrell Williams, and millions of tourists twigged to the ...