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The Mariko Aoki Phenomenon

phenomenon The Mariko Aoki phenomenon (青木まりこ現象, Aoki Mariko genshō) is a Japanese expression referring to a sudden urge to defecate that is felt upon entering bookstores. The phenomenon is named after Mariko Aoki, a woman who described the effect in a magazine article published in 1985.

[8] Also, the radio program Young Paradise(on Nippon Broadcasting System from 1983 to 1990) had a segment for sharing bowel movement related episodes, and one time the defecation urge felt in bookstores was discussed by being referred to as the "Yoshiko Yamada syndrome". While there has at times been a tendency to view the connection between bookstores and the defecation urge as a preposterous urban legend,[22] specialists have also appeared who have added detailed insight into the topic, such that in the latter half of the 1990s it came to be accepted as an actually existing phenomenon. [99] The author Junichiro Uemae has commented that, at first glance, there appears to be no common thread, in a manner akin to the hypothetical concept of "the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil setting off a tornado in Texas".

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