Akihabara is famous around the world, and the roots of this district trace back to one particular black-market shop in the aftermath of World War II, during which much of Tokyo had been ruined. Shops that dealt with radio parts discarded by the occupying US forces nearby were relocated to the area in Akihabara underneath the elevated train tracks in1951 as Tokyo underwent urban development. The area became a town with a number of shops specializing in radio parts, and soon afterward a number of retailers of electric appliances set up shop, including Ishimaru Denki (site is Japanese only), Yamagiwa, LaOX, and Onoden (site is Japanese only). Akihabara grew into a district where electric appliances, audio equipment, and lighting could all be found. It was at this point in time when TV sets, washing machines, and refrigerators were becoming common in households across Japan. Akihabara changed and grew even livelier in line with the era of rapid economic growth that Japan had entered.

Electronic parts became a hot commodity as Japan entered into a microcomputer boom in the late 1970s, and Akihabara solidified its image as a computer hub in the mid 1990s, when Microsoft Corp. released its epoch-making operating system Windows 95. In the midst of this initial personal-computer boom, people came to Akihabara from all over Japan to search for computer parts, peripheral devices, and new products. As personal computers were still the province of a minority of people in the mid-1990s, Akihabara shined through as a center of cutting-edge technology.