Programming school attracts male students with cute maids
IT’S no secret that Japanese men have a thing for maids, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that some businesses try to use their popularity as an advantage over the competition. Like this new programming school in Shibuya, Tokyo, that is trying to attract male students by having cute maids studying alongside them.
Made In Maid Family is one of many trade schools in Tokyo, so its founders knew that they had to come up with something special to give them an edge in a very competitive market. Their solution – cute maids to keep male students coming back and motivate them to hone their programming skills. The lessons are designed to encourage interaction between students with the maids asking and offering help to the guys.
But hiring some attractive girls to simply keep male students paying for programming courses would have probably been frowned upon by the general public, which is why Made In Maid Family came up with a better solution. It claims to offer the maids the opportunity to learn programming alongside the other students, which is bound to increase their chances of securing a better job in the future. By simply attending classes and interacting with the guys apparently helps them pick up valuable skills.
The maids don’t pay the 2,000 yen (US$18) fee for a three-hour programming lesson, but they do study alongside paying students, who they greet with “Okaeri nasaimase” (“Welcome home,”), when they walk through the door. That’s apparently the salutation used at Japanese maid cafes.
The maid trend has really taken off in Japan recently. Whereas before they only had maid cafes, you now have other themed services as well, like maid gyms, and, apparently, maid programming schools.