In the mid-1980s , a womanhood name Mariko Aoki send a letter to Japan’sHon no Zasshi , orBook cartridge , explaining a enigmatical shape : whenever Aoki entered abookstore , her bowels on the spur of the moment seemed to leap to biography . The clip impress the letter in its February 1985 military issue , and it soon became clear that Aoki was n’t alone . Other reader mailed in letter detail like experiences , andHon no Zasshicapitalized on the impulse of the theme by publishing a lengthy feature article squall “ The Phenomenon Currently shake the Bookstore Industry ! ”
Decades later , a bookshop ’s baffle ability to galvanize some people ’s GI tracts into action is n’t exactly being learn in aesculapian school . While the condition has n’t been scientifically try out , it ’s garnered enough metier insurance coverage and public documentation over the years to warrant a fairly extensive entry onWikipedia . It ’s call , as The A.V. Clubreports , “ Mariko Aoki phenomenon , ” a fitting tribute to the woman who was plucky enough to say what so many other bookstall browsers were thinking — and tone . ( Aoki reportedly does n’t mind being the namesake . )
A handful of low studies conducted in Japan have suggest that the term fall out all over the land , and it ’s between two and four times more vulgar in cleaning lady than in men . People whowork in bookstoresmight have make up an immunity to it , and few cases have been document in baby . That said , without inquiry on a larger scale , it ’s impossible to view these trends with any degree of certainty .
There ’s a deficiency of evidence to corroborate the possibility that could explicate Mariko Aoki phenomenon , too , though it ’s still flirt with to muse them . harmonise toNews Lagoon , one supposition is that the ink or newspaper publisher used in the fabrication of some Bible could contain a laxative agent , while another musical theme is that our social wont of reading on the toilet has specify our dead body to cause adefecatory developmentwhenever we open abook . It has also been suggested that all the bending and squatting we do while scanning shelves and pause to read a few pages could move things along in ourintestines . Yet another theory alleges we ’re subconsciously overwhelmed by all the information we encounter in a bookstore , and the impulse to empty our bowels is a psychosomatic endeavor to escape all this data .
Next clip you ’re waiting in line at a bookstall bathroom , why not pass the time by discussing the merits of each theory with your fellow Mariko Aoki - sensitive patrons .
