地位も名誉も金もあるキャリアウーマンが59番目に告白された男は、今までに会ったことがないヘビー級の「オタク」だった。(出版元：美術出版社)

* 2005/7/6 配信 ALC Newsletter No.15(ALC International Marketing 発行)より

* クリックできる語句には、語注がついています

I told you before that Japanese women are becoming more powerful and influential than ever. So, has there been any change in women-men relationships seen as a result? Actually, there has been a new trend beginning to -- that is, "a career woman and an otaku (geek) guy making a good couple."

This trend was just introduced by a book called "The 59th Proposal" published by Bijutsu Shuppansha in May. The author, Artesia, began writing her diary on the Internet when she met an otaku guy, who later turned out to be her Mr. Right, at a bar last year.

Artesia is a person who deserves to be called a "career woman" without a doubt -- graduated from one of the top universities in Japan, and has recently established herself as a freelance advertising agent after working for a leading advertising agency. Artesia gained every guy's love by applying marketing analysis and strategies to them. The 58 guys she got involved with were all excellent talkers and successful men, but none of the relationships could be called a "true love" and never satisfied Artesia's yearning heart.

That was until she met an otaku guy -- "the 59th." The 59th was a type of guy Artesia had never known before -- he had never had a relationship with a woman, wore tacky clothes, and all he was interested in were things like the Japanese animation series Gundam, insects and martial arts. Of course he didn't know how to socialize casually with a woman.

However, because Artesia was also interested in Gundam, they had some conversations at the bar and the 59th soon fell in love with Artesia. Artesia first had difficulty accepting an otaku guy as her boyfriend, but because the 59th tried to tell her his feelings sincerely, albeit clumsily, Artesia realized that she didn't have to draw up love strategies any more and could just "be herself."

Artesia says in a magazine interview that independent career women and otaku guys are similar in that neither of them actually fit their stereotypes (it is probably true that career women are still struggling with gender bias). And they both also have a wealth of knowledge, so once they become partners, they soon make good couples -- that's how Artesia analyzes it. Her analysis is quite novel and has not been widely shared yet, but it has already been reported by various media including the British newspaper The TIMES. The trend of a "career woman-otaku guy relationship" might be a big boom in Japan in the near future, and might help resolving Japan's reduced birthrate and revitalizing it's economy. Believe it or not, there're 2.85 million otakus said to be in Japan, and the otaku market is estimated to be 290 billion yen! (*)

* Data released on August 24, 2004 by Nomura Research Institute, Ltd.