You can find very cheap houses for sale all over rural Japan, but did you know that, in addition to the usual maintenance headaches, some come with creepy secrets that no one talks about?
These stories are taken directly from actual posts on Japanese sites like Note, Ameblo, and 5ch. I picked three of the scariest ones to share. If you get scared easily, maybe just skip this one!
First story: Yamanashi Prefecture – A former hot spring inn turned haunted house
(Original post from 2023 on Note, over 120,000 views)
"This place used to be a small inn after the war. It stood vacant for about 20 years and was listed at Akeya Bank for only 15,000 yen. As soon as I heard it had its own private hot spring source, I signed the papers right there.
On my third night, I was soaking in the tub, completely blissful. Suddenly, someone knocked on the wooden bathroom door three times from inside.
I was naked and jumped so hard I almost slipped.
I opened the door with a jerk - nothing. Just steam rising.
I told myself it was the disposal of the pipes.
The next night, the same thing happened, at the same time – three shocks.
On the third night, after knocking, the lock opened on its own.
I went to the village and asked a 90-year-old grandmother about it. He just shrugged his shoulders and said,
'Oh yes, that… many years ago,o a young woman hanged herself in the bathroom. She likes to come out in the summer and look for someone to join her in the baths.'
I almost died right there.
I have now put the house up on Airbnb. Every guest review says the same thing:
【Late at night, there was a knocking sound from inside the bathroom.】"
Second story: Nagano Prefecture – A 1-yen countryside house
(Ameblo blog from 2024, over 500,000 views)
“It was literally 1 yen, plus a huge 400-square-meter plot of land. I felt like I won the lottery.
There was an old well behind the house,se which was filled with weeds. When I found it, I joked that it was a wishing well.
In about ten days, I started hearing constant thudding footsteps on the roof at night.
I thought it was rats, so I used poison – nothing was found.
Every night,t the stairs got closer – from the attic down to the living room, then right outside my bedroom door.
One night, I clearly heard a faint whispering voice outside,
'Ido…Ido…(Ok…Ok…)'
The next morning, I gatheredth courage to lift the lid of the well.
In the water, a pale woman's face was staring back at me, smiling.
I ran back to Tokyo the same day and re-listed the house on Akiya Bank - still 1 yen.
No one has touched it since then.”
Third story: Gifu Prefecture – A snowy mountain cabin
(Fresh January 2025 post on Note, over 20,000 likes, real couple photos)
“My husband and I bought this little mountain house for 50,000 yen. It also had hot spring pipes we could add, perfect for converting into a guesthouse.
While making repairs, the old carpenter gently warned us: 'There was a fire here twenty years ago. One person died—all the bones were never found.'
We cleared it.
Then last December, during the first big snowfall, something really scared us.
Around midnight, my husband woke me up by shaking me: 'Someone is calling your name!'
I heard - sure enough, the voice of a man screaming in the snow outside,
'Hey-! There you are!'
Its sound was probably five meters away from the window. We grabbed the flashlight and looked – there were no footprints in the fresh snow.
The next day, the bathtub was filled with bright red water.
We called a Shinto priest. They said that the steam coming from the hot spring had agitated the spirit of the person who died in the fire.
Finally, we took out a half-burned human bone from inside a cell…
Now the place looks very beautiful in daytime photos, but I refuse to sleep there.
Does anyone want it? 50,000 yen, hot spring rights included, we'll also cover shipping."
Japan currently has around 9 million empty homes, and that number's expected to top 10 million by 2030.
You can buy these old places extremely cheaply—1 yen, 10,000 yen, 100,000 yen deals are everywhere. If you're thinking about buying an inexpensive house in rural Japan,... keep your eyes open.
Good night. And hey—make sure you lock your doors. Especially the one inside the bathroom.
