In the past, Japanese otaku have been described as a human way of being characteristic for today’s individualized and atomized society because the otaku so imagined does not value involvement with other people and composes his or her world of only what they are interested in.

Without question, members in fan-fiction communities constituted by such otaku display a remarkably high level of mobility. Fan-fiction (nijisōsaku, derivative works) refers to creations, such as comics or novels, by fans using characters or worlds of already-existing fictions; a practice that also concerns the violations of intellectual property (copyright) in modern society. Members of such groups move frequently without “settling” in one community. In Japan, women otaku communities are extremely large and are said to have millions of members. It is interesting to note that despite the aforementioned high levels of fluidity or the “self-absorbed” image of otaku, they maintain order within their communities carefully and efficiently, and create common norms. They make, share and comply with norms in environments where there are no organizations, leaders, written rules or penalties.

Based on long-term participant observation and deep interviews in the “fan-fiction” community of female otaku, the purpose of this report is to elucidate that the otaku community shows one way of cooperativity in modern society, by analyzing the mechanisms of generating norms and order in such an informal community with its high level of individualization and fluidity.