I think it is good for Japanese people to be Otaku; specializing in a certain field is better than knowing nothing or having no hobby. Maybe, people get something wrong; they assume Otaku people to be socially intolerant or hate in company with an ordinary person. It's, hey, not true.
In general, if someone devotes his or herself to studying or learning academically about the only subject, he or she must, for sure, go pale or lifeless: not organic. It's natural. For example, all of us must have experienced this kind of pain; to pass the entrance exams of Aogaku university, we (each alone) studied so hard at the desk that we stopped talking to friends or interrupted it saying "I'm sorry I gotta get back home, I got plenty of homework and have to find the time to get it all done". You see, when you approach something seriously, you never want anyone to bother you. It makes people a bit alone, but it's not always a bad thing.
This is the fundamental nature of Otaku culture, I guess.
