NANPA

See also Nanpa (disambiguation)

Nanpa or nampa (Japanese: ナンパ), in Japanese culture, is a type of flirting and seduction, popular among teenagers and people in their twenties.

The word was originally rendered in kanji as 軟派 (literally "the soft school"), and was used in a rather different way—to refer to people interested more in fun and self-indulgence than in "hard" pursuits like politics, academia, or athletics.

Nanpa tends to occur on busy streets and other lively public places, notably Shibuya Station in Tokyo. Young men stand at the edge of the street and watch passing women. When a woman strikes a man's fancy, he typically invites her to a café or karaoke bar. The evening may finish with a visit to a love hotel, or at least the promise for a second rendezvous. Although it is rare in practice, nanpa is socially acceptable in Japan, and tolerated as a natural youthful indiscretion, although most women consider it a form of street harassment.

There also exists a homosexual nanpa culture, especially within the gay village of Shinjuku ni-chome.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.