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Found this article in my local newspaper and manage to track it back
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/science/20090204TDY04302.htm
Despite a recent decline in the number of blood donors nationwide, particularly during the winter season, a blood center in Tokyo’s Akihabara district has been bucking the trend, with a 50 percent increase in donors since it opened its doors three years ago.
The increase is being attributed to the large number of men who visit the district, which is renowned for its electrical appliance shops. However, the area recently has become a haven for otaku geeks, many of whom have become regular blood donors at the center near JR Akihabara Station in Chiyoda Ward.
On weekends, the waiting room of the Japanese Red Cross Society’s Akiba Blood Donation Room, situated on the first floor of an office building in the heart of Akihabara, is packed with donors. In keeping with the general atmosphere of the district, the room, which is decked out with wooden tables and about 30 chairs, boasts a manga collection featuring about 800 titles. The collection largely comprises comics contributed by the donors themselves.
Tomokazu Sato, a 29-year-old newspapers sales manager in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, read a manga comic while waiting to give blood one Saturday last month.
“I often come here when I visit Akihabara to buy video games,” he said.
Thirteen of his 16 blood donations have been made at the center.
Yukio Yazawa, 50, an assistant manager at the Japanese Red Cross Tokyo Metropolitan Blood Center’s public relations department, recalled the free massages that were offered a few months after the facility opened in June 2005. “I think our popularity stemmed from that service,” he said.
In an effort to promote the center, the center in March 2006 asked female staffers at a nearby salon offering foot care services to dress up as maids and massage donors’ hands.
Though some Japanese Red Cross Society officials expressed concern over the service–one said the service “lacked dignity”–the massages proved popular with the public. For example, a group of about 60 men who become acquainted via the Internet turned up en masse to give blood one day. Though the facility has not offered the free massage service since its early days, one official said some people still ask, “Where are the maids?”
While other blood donation facilities also try to attract donors with a variety of free services such as palm or tarot card reading and psychological counseling, the Akihabara center only offers free palm reading once a month.
Despite this, about 22,100 people donated blood at the center in fiscal 2005, rising to about 30,000 in fiscal 2006, and about 34,600 in fiscal 2007, according to the facility.
A further recent jump in blood donors prompted the center to increase its beds and consultation rooms last summer.
The facility has a high percentage of male blood donors. According to the Japanese Red Cross Society, the male-female ratio of blood donors in Tokyo is fairly constant at around 3 to 2, while at the Akihabara center, male donors account for 85 percent of all donations.
While donors can choose whether to give 200 milliliters or 400 milliliters of blood, in 2007, 91 percent of the Akihabara donors chose to donate 400 milliliters–eight percentage points higher than the average at Tokyo’s other blood centers.
Many people stop by the Akihabara center during sightseeing or shopping trips, meaning donors hail from as far afield as Hokkaido and Okinawa Prefecture.
Misao Toki, a 35-year-old company employee of Ota, Gunma Prefecture, visits the facility every two months when he visits Akihabara on shopping trips.
“I give blood while having fun in the district. I’m not very good at interacting with people, but by donating blood, I can do something good for society without having to deal with other people,” Toki said.
Another company employee, 29, of Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, who visits the district to attend free live shows given by voice actors or idols at electrical appliance stores on weekends, said: “I’ve usually got free time between events in the morning and in the afternoon, so I can give blood and have a rest at the same time. This makes me feel I’m doing something positive, even though I’m just lying back on a bed.”
The practice is not new, as as early as 2006, reports of blood bank using maids to attract otakus were reported, but it became more prominent as these otakus becomes the main source of blood in Japan.
