I had the recent pleasure of spending some time in Tokyo, a city of 8 million inhabitants. Exploring Japan’s capital was really enjoyable with all its marvels and technology. But nothing really prepared me for a discovery I made late one afternoon at a major intersection.

It all started in the Tokyo suburb of Yūrakuchō (有楽町) whereupon I came across a curious street display outside the Sony Building at the Sukiyabashi crossroad.

What is it? The Yurakucho Marui display photographed at night.

The display featured four vending machines, lined up in a row and elevated on a platform like poker machines. Positioned above them was an object that resembled a giant illuminated pill or capsule. Displayed in each vending machine were smaller versions of the red and white capsule, each of which was about 20 centimetres long. About five staff attended the display, and the phrase “Yurakucho Marui – Fashion Therapy” was painted in English on the front. All other signage was in Japanese.

Passers-by retrieve a capsule from the Yurakucho Marui machines. (Photo: avic.co.jp)

As I stood there, I tried to figure out what those capsules were, but I couldn’t.

Aside from the giant “pill” on the top of this display, my eye was drawn to the people queuing to participate. Each person would come up onto the platform and a member of staff would assist them in purchasing a capsule. The display would stay open for maybe 20 minutes, then be closed for 15 minutes before resuming again. I considered joining the queue, but decided that my lack of Japanese language skills and their probable lack of English skills could be a problem. And of course I didn’t know what I might be buying anyway.

Still curious at the sight before me, I took some photos and decided I’d investigate further when I returned to Australia, which turned out to be much trickier than I had anticipated.

Searching on the Internet didn’t really help answer any questions.

My first discovery was that Marui (丸井) is a department store with a logo consisting of the letters “OIOI” (based on some Japanese ). This logo was reproduced on the capsules.

After showing my close friends at work (who were equally confused and intrigued) it was suggested that I ask a Japanese colleague to translate the signs in the photos. Sadly, the translations didn’t assist us in figuring out the mystery. But he kindly did some “homework” and found a number of Japanese websites that discussed this very display. And whilst he was doing that, I did a search for “Yurakucho Marui” on Flickr.com, the photo-sharing website. We then simultaneously discovered what was in those capsules…

Underpants!

…and not just any underpants, free underpants! I really didn’t expect that.

The Yurakucho Marui underpants. (Photo by Jesse Wu).

It turned out that a number of Japanese-language blogs have documented their respective author’s amazement at the Yurakucho Marui free underpants dispensing machine.

Each blog author had queued to get a capsule, then gone home to inspect the contents whilst photographing the whole sequence of events. The photos showed that each pair of underpants had a slogan, which I have had translated for me. The male underpants read “僕はいつでも準備ＯＫです”, which I am informed translates as “I am always OK (ready) for it!”. Alternatively they read “Make people happy, but first yourself”. The women’s underpants only had one slogan which translated as “You can’t change others, only yourself”.

A pair of Yurakucho Marui underpants. (Photo: avic.co.jp)

As it turned out, the Yurakucho Marui was a brand new store scheduled to open a week after I had visited their unique display. The purpose of the display was to promote the store, by offering “fashion therapy” in the form of message-clad underwear packed into a giant plastic capsule, dispensed from a machine.

And with that, the mystery was solved.

People do say that Japan is full of odd surprises, and I reckon that a row of free underpants-dispensing machines at a major Tokyo intersection fits that description perfectly. How bizarre!

References (all Japanese language):
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/hanabi2007hanabi/23228433.html
http://www.avic.co.jp/blog/sonybuild/archives/2007/10/post_55.php
http://cocolo-pikan.jugem.jp/?eid=165

Translations kindly provided by Harumi Shinozuka.

Image credits:
First image: © Adam Dimech, 2007. All rights reserved.
Second and fourth images: Reproduced under a Creative Commons Licence from avic.co.jp
Third image: © Jesse Wu, 2007. All rights reserved. Used with permission.