Eight youths who engaged in what they called "otaku hunting" -- mugging geeks on the streets of Tokyo's Akihabara district -- have been arrested in three separate cases, police said Thursday.

The teens all targeted junior high school students they referred to as "Akiba-kei," or geeks who like the otaku culture found widely in retail outlets throughout Akihabara.

Police said there have been 25 reported incidents of "otaku hunting" since the start of the year, with victims losing a combined 350,000 yen between them.

"Otaku are weak and they've got money, so we went after them," one of the arrested youths told the police.

Police said one of the cases involved three boys waylaying a 14-year-old boy who was headed to Akihabara to buy an anime doll and demanding he pay them money or he would be bashed. The boy handed over 3,000 yen, the police said.

In two separate cases in July and September, two groups of boys threatened two other boys, cajoling them into handing over 1,500 yen in cash. (Mainichi)

haha! I wonder if this will spawn an Otaku civil rights movement.