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[Samurai_Jerk]

Map of ‘Haunted’ Homes Is Landlords’ Nightmare in Japan

Wherever there are houses haunted by misfortune, Teru Oshima wants to hear about it.

Mr. Oshima has built one of Japan’s most popular real-estate websites by compiling an online map showing properties with histories of ghastly events. In Japan, that is valuable information: Landlords often give a discount to renters willing to take property that has a stigma.

Take a cramped three-story apartment building in northern Tokyo that has had more than its share of unhappy news, including a drunken brawl in 2006 that took the life of a construction worker who was hit with a beer bottle.

Mr. Oshima gives that building three fire icons, one for each unnatural death that took place on its premises. “The fire icon is partly inspired by the Michelin stars,” he said. “This one would be a three-star property.”

His website meticulously maps out such properties, making it both a landlord’s nightmare and the go-to online address for bargain hunters and superstitious Japanese

[...]

Japanese law obliges agents to inform prospective tenants of “important” matters involving the property and previous tenants, although it doesn’t spell out what these specifically include, said real-estate lawyer Nakao Seto. Court precedents suggest that concealing the sordid history of an apartment could expose landlords to liability.

[...]

Mr. Oshima got into the haunted-house business from managing his family’s real-estate firm. He used to conduct background checks on properties he was interested in acquiring, compiling the information for internal use. While physical defects were easy to detect, gathering knowledge on past residents proved to be challenging.

“So I switched my approach, and focused on collecting day-to-day information for future reference,” said the 36-year-old. Police and newspaper reports, tip-offs from fellow agents and old-fashioned legwork were initially his main sources of information. He later started a website and threw it open to the public to contribute, Wikipedia-style.

[...]

“If the information is correct, fine. But if it’s not true, it could be devastating to property values,” said Kiyoshi Hoshiai, a Tokyo landlord. Anonymous online users have also criticized what they consider the site’s bad taste.

Mr. Oshima is unfazed. He said information is mainly contributed by sources he considers trustworthy, and that his staff monitors what comes in, deleting any entries that seem dodgy. Viewers have also become quick to point out mistakes.

“My aim is to disclose any information that may prove useful for prospective tenants, regardless of whether property owners like it or not,” said Mr. Oshima.

His goal is to eventually map the whole world.

[matsuki]

His goal is to eventually map the whole world.

While I admire his ambition, I don't think he realizes that other countries don't quite share the superstitions and laws that he's assuming they do. That being said, more power to em either way.

[edit] the comments on some of the ones near by me are both scary/hilarious at the same time. Guy is dead, apparent break-in, money stolen, something something police rule it a suicide

[Samurai_Jerk]

His goal is to eventually map the whole world.

While I admire his ambition, I don't think he realizes that other countries don't quite share the superstitions and laws that he's assuming they do.

I think a lot more do share those superstitions than you realize which is why some states in the US require that information be disclosed (my guess is more do than don't). As the article mentioned, the law in Japan isn't clear but landlords might face some liability if sued for non-disclosure. The only way I would be dissuaded from renting or buying a place where someone has died is if it was such an infamous case that it attracted weirdo tourists or someone I was close to died a horrible death there and living in the place was a constant reminder.

That reminds me of something I've always found odd which is that people feel uncomfortable living in a place where a stranger has died even if it was just an old lady who went peacefully in her sleep. However, they have no problem moving into mom and dad's place one they've kicked the bucket.

[matsuki]

His goal is to eventually map the whole world.

While I admire his ambition, I don't think he realizes that other countries don't quite share the superstitions and laws that he's assuming they do.

I think a lot more do share those superstitions than you realize which is why some states in the US require that information be disclosed (my guess is more do than don't). As the article mentioned, the law in Japan isn't clear but landlords might face some liability if sued for non-disclosure. The only way I would be dissuaded from renting or buying a place where someone has died is if it was such an infamous case that it attracted weirdo tourists or someone I was close to died a horrible death there and living in the place was a constant reminder.

Fair enough...but would you concede that in other most countries (even places that share those superstitions) there are more people willing to either overlook it or are too poor to turn down a place for that reasoning?

That reminds me of something I've always found odd which is that people feel uncomfortable living in a place where a stranger has died even if it was just an old lady who went peacefully in her sleep. However, they have no problem moving into mom and dad's place one they've kicked the bucket.

To clarify, you mean mom and dad died in the home or at the local senior center? Also, even if a stranger went peacefully, the feeling I get from most of the (over) superstitious J-people I know is they're frightened of "Japaneeeezu ghosts" and would probably be less frightened of their parents ghosts rather than some stranger, who's home they have now taken over.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Fair enough...but would you concede that in other most countries (even places that share those superstitions) there are more people willing to either overlook it or are too poor to turn down a place for that reasoning?

No. Besides, the guy who created the site said those places go very quickly. If that's true, that means the Japanese are giving economic considerations priority.

To clarify, you mean mom and dad died in the home or at the local senior center? Also, even if a stranger went peacefully, the feeling I get from most of the (over) superstitious J-people I know is they're frightened of "Japaneeeezu ghosts" and would probably be less frightened of their parents ghosts rather than some stranger, who's home they have now taken over.

I mean the parents died at home and I wasn't talking about Japan specifically. A lot of people in the US feel the same.

[matsuki]

Ok, maybe I'm just not creeped out enough by that line of ghost-thought. I never gave it any consideration but "Sleeping next to a cemetery?!" has been mentioned to me a time or two.

[Mike Oxlong]

Clean-up crew spruce up 'lonely death' apartments

In March, the body of an elderly man was found on the floor of his apartment in downtown Tokyo. He had been dead for a month.

Neighbors hadn’t noticed the octogenarian’s absence. His bank made the rent payments on time, his family didn’t visit, and the only reason for the body’s discovery was the slight smell that troubled the tenant in the flat below.

In rapidly aging Japan, more people are dying alone and unnoticed in a country of 127 million where one in four people is over 65. Looser family bonds play a role in their isolation.

For these so-called “lonely deaths”, families and landlords in Tokyo are increasingly turning to Hirotsugu Masuda and his clean-up crew to salvage apartments where the occupant’s body lay undiscovered for days or weeks.

“This has started becoming a bit more common in the world and it’s become more recognized that there’s this sort of job,” said Masuda, whose services are required 3-4 times a week in summer when bodies decompose faster.

When Masuda’s team turns up at the Tokyo apartment, police have taken away the corpse but body fluids have seeped into the floor. Flies buzz around a cooker filled with rice. Old calendars and papers are strewn in rooms untouched for years.

Workers wearing protective gear spray the apartment with insect repellent, using gloved hands to pack the trash in boxes. The six-hour exercise is conducted discreetly to avoid upsetting the neighbors. The crew tells onlookers they are moving house.

When they are done, incense and flowers are placed where the body was, with the man’s photo put where his head had been.

Masuda’s firm works almost exclusively with “lonely deaths”, charging between 81,000 yen and 341,000 yen depending on apartment size.

In a country where around 5 million elderly people live alone, the number of decaying bodies found in empty homes is expected to soar. Data shows victims are more likely to be male.

“There’s likely 40,000 of these cases and we think that in 10 years, it’s likely to go over 100,000 cases,” said Hideto Kone, an NGO official working on such cases.

Victims forgotten by families are not given a funeral and their remains are interred in unmarked graves.

Yoshie Fukukara, landlord of the apartment where the tenant was found dead, still finds it hard to believe.

“I didn’t think it would happen here,” the 77-year-old said.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/life ... apartments