Japan Times: NANDEYA - Talkin' 'grassroots social reform'
"Anybody got a question? Any question?" hollered a young spiky-haired man in a gray T-shirt and black chinos one evening the other week outside the ticket gates at JR Totsuka Station in Kanagawa Prefecture. The sky was darkening, and shoals of commuters were flowing in and out of the suburban station.
Six or seven people were drawn by the strident invitation. Young women sat down on four cheapish folding chairs. Men, both T-shirt-wearing student types and salarymen in business suits, looked on from behind. Then a woman spoke up in front of complete strangers: "Where can I find my true self?"
Asahi: Nande-ya Phenomenom - Eternal questions answered here
Signs announcing, "We have the answers to all the questions out there! '' have recently popped up at street stalls near train stations, shopping areas and parks.
Certainly, if "The X-Files" agents Mulder and Scully were to be believed, "The Truth Is Out There" somewhere. A brief investigation, however, indicates these stalls may not be the place to find it.
The intent of the stalls, called nande-ya (nande meaning why or how come, and ya meaning store or shop), remains murky. Are they a corporate publicity stunt, an attempt to establish a cult or, more benignly, simply venues where lonely people can talk to other lonely people?
The jury is still out on that query, but there are already about 100 of these stalls operating in the Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya areas.
