In 1985, a Japanese woman wrote a letter about bookstores making her need to use the bathroom. It became a phenomenon.
In February 1985, a 29-year-old woman from Tokyo’s Suginami neighborhood sent a letter to the Japanese magazine Book Magazine. “I’m not sure why,” she wrote, “but since about two or three years ago, whenever I go to a bookstore I am struck by an urge to move my bowels.” The editors received so many similar responses that…
