Would you move into a house or apartment if you knew that a murder or suicide had once taken place there?
Have Your Say ( 72 )
JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
-
Why do some celebrities self-destruct due to substance abuse?
( 14 )
-
What do you think are the main reasons why U.S. car sales are so low in Japan?
( 34 )
-
What can be done to ease escalating tensions between the West and Iran over its nuclear program? And should Japan join sanctions against Iran?
( 14 )
-
What do you think of the revised plan to realign U.S. forces in Japan by sending some Marines to Guam, and rotating others to Australia, the Philippines, Hawaii and possibly Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture?
( 17 )
-
Why are there so many deaths due to snow-related accidents (people falling off rooftops, for example) in Japan this winter?
( 15 )
-
- English Instructor (Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe)
- Berlitz Japan, Inc. (ベルリッツ・ジャパン株式会社), Kansai
- Salary: ¥125,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month
-
- FT English Teachers for Kids - Osaka
- Kohgakusha Co., Ltd. （株式会社興学社）, Osaka
- Salary: ¥255,000 ~ ¥275,000 / Month Travel Expenses, Encouragement of Japanese learning*
-
- Translator
- ZAIHON, Inc. (日本財務翻訳株式会社), Tokyo
- Salary: ¥6.0M / Year Negotiable
Order by Time Order by Popularity
72 Comments
Login to comment
0
ronaldk
Hell no!
0
fatfrenchfool
yes
0
Altria
Yes, it would be a big selling point for me.
0
thedeath
if it is in a convenient location and really cheap, why not. gruesome and famous case as a plus, but it is not requested!
0
Kwaabish
Depends on location and price.
0
dracpoo2
In Japan? after watching Grudge.....sure!
0
stirfry
same answer as the last time this question popped up...yes, depending on location and price
0
Noodlesrominov
Murder yes, suicide no.
0
notimpressed
I stayed in a hotel in nagano recently that had HUGE bloodstains on teh floor. It looked like someone must have bled to death in there, but I still managed to sleep like a baby. So perhaps as long as there is not lastnig evidence of blood etc, and no spooks hanging about rattling the dishes....sure, why not?
0
ronaldk
You all are crazy.
0
30061015
With all the recent stabbings & murders, with 100 people taking their lives daily in Japan, sad commentary that this question has become an issue.
0
timorborder
Depends if I had done or not, don't it!
I would have no problems with my missus being bunged in the freezer out in the garage, as long as there was still room for my TV dinners. Actually it might give me a bit of peace and quiet.
However, having some geezer hanging from the ceiling in the living room would be a real problem. Like how could you see the TV if some chap's feet kept on getting in the way.
0
kanadamanada
Post-murder/suicude dwellings go for a pittance in Japan as the real estate agents are legally forced to inform any potential buyer/renter about the deaths. Such is the depth of Japanese superstitions. Pathetic, really, but a great chance at a bargain for godless heathens such as myself.
0
fairyprince
Will I get a discount?
0
timorborder
Sounds like a business opportunity. Buy for a pittance, knock down the existing structures as sell the land as is?
Then again, considering the reputation of local real estate agents, it would not surprise me if they played loose with the truth regarding any legal duty to inform potential buyers.
0
Okinawamike
The question should be, would you move out of an apartment if someone commited suicude? Answer; damn sure did.
Found the owner hanging from the the roof one night. I tried to stay because the price was right, but after taking a showers with the door open and washing one side of my face and hair at at time so I could keep one eye open at all times, I said hell no, time to go!
0
mareo2
If is cheaper than my current flat. I call my my brother that is a budist monk for make some kind of spiritual cleansing and be sure that I am not sharing the place with a ghost.
0
thedeath
Okinawamike, that's funny.
why worry that much about the already dead owner?
you didn't pay the rent, did you?
0
moonbeams
No, because I did before and encountered the ghost. He was physical, not translucent, touched me, I could feel him and he vanished when I tried to get him off of me.
Until that moment I did not believe in ghosts, nor would I believe this story.
0
DXXJP
I lived in a house that had some dead people in it. It was cheep, however a few things had me wondering. One night I heard a child singing at like 3:30 in the morn. Another time I got up to go pee, as I walked to the bathroom all the lights were off. When I came back to my room the room next to mine the lights were on. I opened the shoji and looked quick and then pulled the string.
Im not scared of no ghost, if they wanna harass me thats fine but dont make me late for work.
0
Molenir
lol, don't believe in ghosts myself, so like others said, location and price.
0
LostinNagoya
yes. I once lived in an apartment that no one stayed there longer than a couple of weeks - I didn't know about that when I moved into it. Then one night I heard someone walking inside my room, and I felt a presence, a woman. I panicked, but then being religious paid service: it came to my mind to pray a Hail Mary asking for help for this entity (I didn't pray asking the entity to disappear, for all of a sudden I felt that what she wanted was help). It worked, after praying, I felt so calm, so in peace, and I slept. When I was sleeping I felt a caring, soft hand brushing lightly my hair, and the thought of "arigatou" came to my mind. After that, I had two more experiences similar to this one. In short, I am not afraid of ghosts, dead people, entities. I am afraid of live people. These ones may rob, rape and kill me.
0
seesaw
Certainly a NO THANKS for me..! I usually would be able to feel it myself if the place had a history of murder or suicide...
0
fatfrenchfool
try and find a square foot anywhere in tokyo where someone didnt die badly sometime over the past few centuries.
0
fatfrenchfool
no, you wouldn't
0
fatfrenchfool
your use of 'usually' here intrigues me. did you give ray parker jr your number?
0
motytrah
I was under the impression that people in Japan bought houses based on location with the rising the building and building a new structure.
0
ca1ic0cat
I probably would not but then again I wouldn't ask either...
0
Madara
I am not a superstitious person so I don't mind living in a place that has a murder/suicide history.
0
Crimsonsil
Sure. It'd either be uneventful, or rather interesting.
0
Zenbone
Yes i would.
0
iraqisurvival
I don't mind living there, at least I ll commemorate the victims and not hurt the business of the owner.
0
vajra
Question is really funny, hell no !
0
jonnyboy
anyone interested in this topic should look into the psychology experiment known as the "murder's sweater". long story short, many people will refuse to wear a sweater if told it used to belong to a murderer. furthermore, they will be uncomfortable with anyone who does agree to wear it, even though no evidence is presented. the suggestion is that people are "hard-wired" for superstitious thought
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/sep/04/religion.uk
0
dr_jones
Depends on how long the corpses where laying in the house! Because you will never get rid of the death smell fully. A friends of mine once bought a car in which somebody died and the corpse was laying in it for a long time. He was wondering about the strange smell in the otherwise fine car and found later out what happened with it before. You can't imagine how quick he returned the car.
But in terms of spookiness ... anytime! I love cozy horror!
0
dr_jones
@LostinNagoya
So did this only happen in your mind or did you really see something?
0
OneForAll
How about the power of suggestion, jonnyboy? That is why one needs a firm foundation. For me. No thanks. Do not wish to live there nor wear the sweater:-0. Too spooooooky...oooo...kidding. But something like why people put flowers where someone died in a traffic accident. History of a place matters only if we remember it.
I think we know everyplace has a history. And thing. Mount of Olives. Battlefields. Are just a few examples. What does it means to the present? "Journey Through Hallowed Ground, Gettysburg National Military Park..." http://www.hallowedground.org... The question for this article might be does the past action affect the present state of the place as in Hallow Ground (opposite direction)? Or is it just our memory that gives the place its special meaning. I think memory and that is why the sweater was uncomfortable. A memory of a bad event became associated with something.
0
ronaldk
After reading all of the responses I have changed my mind. I am so hard up for money with so little self-respect that I "would" live in such a house or apartment.
0
RandomTask
As long as the area they were living in wasn't the cause of death, and there are no remaining traces, I don't see why not.
0
JoeBigs
I would not care if 50 were killed in there as long as I could get it for a song and a dance.....
Good deals are good deals....
0
jonnyboy
it's not the power of suggestion at all. whether or not the sweater truly belonged to a killer is irrelevant. the point is that the only reason people would be unwilling to wear the sweater is under the belief that it might contain some form of "evil", which is quite clearly a superstitious belief. it goes to show that even those who make conscious efforts to act rationality are still prone to superstitious in certain circumstances
0
LostinNagoya
Dr jones: This really happened. I really saw her. And it was not only me, all the previous tenants had seen her, or some felt or heard her. That´s why no one stayed there more than a month. After that experience, I lived there for more than one year in total peace. Since then I moved into a new ap because of my job, and again the first week inside it I saw an old man standing by the window in my bedroom. Again I forced myself to calm down and pray, and he just vanished and a good sensation came to me. After that my landlord reluctantly told me that some 10 years before an old solitary man had died here. I have been here for more than 3 years, and in peace. I have been studying this phenomena and it seems that I am a medium. Actually according to what I am studying all of us are mediums, but we don´t know about it. It only surfaces if you study.
0
Everton2
It is rather embarrassing and i may be singled out for saying this, I have never ever seen anything!
0
OneForAll
Everton: Me neither. However, LostinNagoya, I had an interest in Para-psychology as a teen. Got lots of books. Had a dream of a car accident. Told my brothers. Two weeks later, voila, the accident. I took the para-psych books back and moved on.
LostinNagoya: Curious, your story is. I wonder about history. Yesterday there was an article about the Universe and the study of 250,000,000 year old data via a telescope (the data traveled that far). It is history they are looking at as if it was present knowing full well it is history. Have you heard of the fulfillment of history? There is something more to history than just the past. It was important to the ancients to be remembered for some reason. The idea of Ritual may comes into play here...the reenactment of past history or at least the memory of such events. Does it actually bring a piece of history to the present? I do not know but I do go to Mass most Sundays. "Memory and History: How it affects our perception of places and things" might be a good title for a book. Good luck with your gift. A new frontier!
0
Den Den
Simple, if you believe in all that spooky stuff, then don't live there. If you are a realist, then a house is only a dwelling and time continues in a forward motion for eternity.
0
jonnyboy
LostinNagoya, you might like to read up on cognitive bias. go look at some optical illusions and tell me that you still feel 100% confident that your senses give you a true picture of the world around you, 100% of the time. it isn't true. our senses make a lot of assumptions, and fill in a lot of gaps in perception in ways that have been evolutionarily useful to us. i can't say i know the truth of your experience, but just because you saw a man standing by a window is not objective proof that there was something there
0
LostinNagoya
Den Den has a point: sceptics can really block themselves from this experience, just by not believing.
One For All: After reading tens of books about similar experiences, I have come to a point of having to study quantum physics, Einstein to understand - even if barely - what really happens. In short, time as we perceive it is only a face of the true notion of it. Have you heard about the twin-photos billions of miles away from each other (an Einstein experience by the way), but they can interact instantly, amazingly telling scientists that distance and time sometimes do no exist? Bringing this to the ¨ghost¨ topic: these entities are in a different time- and distance-frame different from ours. In another dimension to be more clear. This another dimension exist, among infinite other ones. In one of them is the electron which is making your computer work right now, for instance. As the saying goes, there are many more things that don´t reach our eyes.
0
OneForAll
DenDen - just for fun. After all, Matter is just a moment of history. Is that all that matters? Without your memory of your own history you could not respond. Nor know who you are. Joseph Ratzinger had these ideas. Anyway, living in a haunted house would not bother me. Murder and Suicide would but if I had too, I think I'd get over it with perhaps a cleansing ritual of sorts. ronaldk - good luck. Go ask a real-estate agent for one.
0
jonnyboy
and conversely, believers are subject to confirmation bias, in that they see that which they already believe
0
LostinNagoya
@jonnyboy: I have friends who are sceptics and they give thousands of reasons, amateur and academic, to dismiss experiences like mine. I understand them, it´s not easy to admit that there are people, objects, life parallel to our perception of 4-dimensions. Not even Einstein believed it, after he himself discovered it.
0
jonnyboy
i'm a firm follower of quantum mechanics, and the 11 dimensions (or more) it describes, but i'm skeptical that this is supporting evidence for the experiences you have described. none of the theories regarding the "higher" dimensions explain them on the macro level. they are either very small (ie. wrapped up within our familiar 3 spatial dimension) or very large (ie. our 3 spatial dimensions are contained within the higher dimensions)
0
LostinNagoya
@ jonnyboy: that´s an aspect I want to avoid discussing here because then it would need us to talk about things like plasma body, bion, chakras and all the stuff I know scientists can´t take into account. As I said above, I understand their point of view. But I do not expect mine to be understood or accepted, and that´s fine with me. On a more scientific angle: I do believe that quantum physics has more to be discovered, tested. And I don´t agree with the 11 dimensions string-theory, or 36 as some are saying now. I believe in infinite dimensions. You are right, QM do not support personal extra-dimensions experiences like mine. But I think this is for the time being, I hope.
0
Wakarimasen
Yes. Who's afraid of the big bad spooks?
0
realist
Reading some of the posts on this thread make me feel ill. I wouold have no problem living in a place where someone had been murdered, if I had to, but it wouldnt be my first choice. I do not fear "ghosts" but I do believe in the existance of evil spirits who sometimes masquarade as "ghosts." Howver, I have no fear of them, because I am a Christian, and am fully protected by my Lord.
0
realist
As for theassertion on one of the above threads that "we are all mediums" I am afraid that to me that is just pure bunkum.
0
USARonin
Yes.
It ain't the dead that concern me.
0
USARonin
It seems to me that most folks are less afraid of country spirits than urban spooks.
0
LostinNagoya
realist, have you never had a deja vu? Mediunity is not only being able to see or hear entities - actually, only a very small percentage are able to do so. A deja vu is an example of mediunity which is quite common.
0
boitoi
if the ooyasan offers big discount, why not?
0
Beelzebub
My wife would definitely not let me move into such a place. I think there is a rational argument for performing an exorcism, or purification, if you prefer, to console the spirits of the dead, and then it should be okay. I am not superstitious, but I do believe that an aura of tragedy can linger and that this can have a psychological impact on the living. It's about peace of mind. And I can't see how doing it can possibly hurt anyone.
0
USARonin
Beezlebub, I basically agree.
In area of employment when someone comes up dead, our Filipina (women) labor force won't enter the death room until a Catholic priest comes and bless it.
We oblige more with quiet understandin' than with comment.
0
tsukki
No, that would be scary!
0
xrc
Is the rent cheaper? I'll take it, if it's in a good area...My buddy's wife's relative died (in Japan) and she didn't want to take anything left in the house for fear of evil spirits or something... so my buddy offered me a 29" old digital Hitachi TV, washer machine & dryer, etc. still running great after 8 years.....haven't been haunted yet....
0
Makkun70
Yes, and have done, we didn't have to pay any deposit and got 2 months rent free. The place was a brand new 3LDK and the rent was lowered as well. The fudosan told us the unfortunate story, wife had hit her husband on the head with a wine bottle and he later collapsed in the hallway and was rushed to hostpital but was dead on arrival.
I mean are people not going to walk down roads where murders have occured?
Who cares, we made a killing (pardon the pun) and have really great place to live now.
0
Makkun70
The fudosan's have to tell you I believe..
0
telecasterplayer
Depends.. is the body still splayed out on the floor, or did they have a chance to clean up first?
0
SiouxGirl
I think I would. I'm not a superstitious person. I've never seen a ghost or had any supernatural experiences. Even if I had/did, I'm just not the kind of person who's afraid of things.
0
USARonin
An excellent, honest summation of one person's self-reflection.
A breath of fresh air, if I may use a stale cliche.
0
SiouxGirl
Actually, there is one thing I am afraid of - real flesh and blood psychopaths, either gun-toting or knife-wielding. Ghosts, I can handle!
0
nurse13
If there weren’t evidence of the murder or suicide and a large discount was offered, yes. I’m from a superstitious culture but wouldn’t let it deterred me. I admit, I would be uneasy in the house or apartment but not enough to give up on a bargain. Okinawamike, that’s funny and I like your sense of humor.
0
OhioDonna
NO!
0
TheGeneral
This question could be better phrased: Are you a small child or a simpleton that believes in ghosts?
Back to top