Danica Davidson
January 21, 2025 
Kids Valley is a Japanese nonprofit that caters to both kids (as the title suggests) and senior citizens, finding community spaces for them. It opened the Shangri-La maid café Kiryu, Gunma Prefecture, where all the maids are senior citizens.
To be precise, the maids must be 65 or older to take part. The café, which opened last year, has been doing well, and gets people from Osaka and Tokyo attending, as well as people who live nearby.
One maid, who’s at the youngest age of 65, noted, “I learn a lot talking with customers who are older than me, and it makes me feel happy and young again when young female customers say I’m cute.”
An 85-year-old customer also commented, “It was nice to talk to a maid who’s young enough to be my daughter and to do calligraphy.”
As with other maid cafés, the maids here say the line, “Moe moe kyun!” (translated as “Become more delicious!”), make heart shapes with their hands, and are happy to pose with customers for pictures. As of the beginning of the year, there are seven maids, with the youngest at 65 and the oldest at 72.
People can visit Shangri-La on the first Saturday of each month, between 8 AM and 12 PM. It offers up bento lunches and simmered dishes, as well as a soft drink bar where you can drink as much soda as you’d like.
Japan is known for its variety of cafés, ranging from temporary cafés related to anime series to sleeping cafés to an unusual abuse café (and there’s also a whole manga about that last style). And with senior loneliness being an issue in Japan (and elsewhere), it’s nice this café has found a way to bring cheer senior citizens and people of all ages.
Source: SoraNews24
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
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