First of all, they're not called otaku anymore but go by the much snazzier name of Akiba-kei. With this recasting, it looks like Japan's muscle-less, girlfriend-less, PC/iPod obsessed class of bespectacled oddballs have moved en masse into the cultural mainstream.
No longer the shunned weirdos of yesteryear, Akiba-kei are now reputed to influence everything from stock points to semantics to sexual relationships. So while the New Yorkers looked to the television series "Sex and the City," Tokyoites are looking to Akiba-kei for pointers on love.
After all, the season's most popular TV drama, "Densha-Otoko (Train Man)," was about the relationship between a virgin Akiba-kei who had never dated and an intimidatingly beautiful, sophisticated career woman. To borrow a phrase from my niece Asami (15): "Ussssoooooo, arienaaaaaai! (You're kidding! It can't be happening!)"