The first time Ryua stepped into her rental apartment in Tokyo, she believed it was haunted.
"When I went to see the house, there was a man standing there, staring at me," she said. "Because the real estate agent couldn't see him, I realized he must be a ghost." A timid person might have left immediately and never come back, but Luya decided to move in anyway.
"I'm a bit of a naysayer, so I decided to be friends with this guy who was glaring at me," Liu Ya added.
She is an idol artist (aidoru) and does not want to reveal her last name.
Four years later, she is still living in the same apartment and says she continues to experience paranormal phenomena every day. She said she would hear constant footsteps and ghosts talking.
The previous resident of this apartment took his own life here.
While Halloween has become increasingly popular in Japan in recent years, many Japanese take ghosts seriously year-round.
There is a Japanese word called "ghost" (yuurei), which means a lingering, restless soul. These are the ghosts of people who died in violent or tragic events—people who were murdered, committed suicide, or simply lived alone and died alone.
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If they died in their home, it was believed that their ghost would never leave. For house hunters who aren't superstitious or afraid of ghosts, that means big bargains to be found.
There is an entire category of houses called jiko bukken (jiko bukken), which means properties that have "stains" or "something happened to them."
Under guidelines issued by the government in 2021, Japanese real estate agents must disclose suicides, murders, fire deaths, and any death where the body has not been found for a long time. For rental properties, this information must be disclosed for three years; for properties for sale, it must be disclosed indefinitely.
In contrast, in the UK there is no legal requirement to reveal that someone died on the property; in the US it varies from state to state. California, for example, requires disclosure that someone died on the property within the past three years, while Arizona and Oregon do not.
At that time, Luya was told that a man committed suicide in her apartment. This allowed her to get a nearly 30% discount on the rent of a small single apartment of only 25 square meters in the fashionable Setagaya district.
She said she was paying 45,000 yen (about $285; £213) a month instead of the original 62,000 yen. While a house where a murder or suicide occurred may be harder to sell or rent anywhere in the world, Tokyo real estate agent Erik Oskamp said the Japanese are particularly superstitious and repulsive to tainted properties.
"Even an apartment next to a cemetery can be difficult to rent, especially if the tombstones are visible from the kitchen," the real estate agent explained.
"The worst ones are suicides in apartments. Even if someone jumps from the roof, many tenants will move out. Other problems include serious crime or dying alone."
The latter (a person dying alone) does not usually affect house prices in the UK or US. But in rural Kagoshima in southwestern Japan, that allowed American Diane Tincher to buy a three-bedroom house for about half the price.
"If there is a ghost, I thank her."
The 79-year-old American has lived in Japan for nearly 40 years and works as a tour guide. She said the housing agent was honest with her - offering a steep discount because an old woman died alone and the property was tainted.
Tincher bought the house for 20 million yen, while similar properties in the area usually sell for 45 million yen.
"I don't believe in ghosts. But I know the Japanese are very superstitious," she said. "If there is a ghost, I thank her every day... for allowing me to live in such a beautiful and affordable home."
Tincher said she received a 50% discount on her house in the Japanese countryside.
While researching the house, Tincher found it on a website called Oshimaland.
The website lists accident objects and provides details of the incident. It was launched in 2005 and initially included properties in Tokyo, then expanded to nationwide Japan and internationally in 2011.
This is a crowdsourcing site where the public adds their own homes and their details.
image copyrightDiane Tincher
Teru Oshima, founder of the website, explained that in the past, this type of property "was not a very attractive option" in Japan.
However, as housing prices in Japan have risen in recent years, and the overall cost of living has increased significantly, a 2025 survey found that more than half of Japanese people are now willing to rent accident properties if the price is cheap.
Back in Setagaya, Ryuya expressed that she was content living with her ghost roommate.
"I believe ghosts were once living people, so they deserve our respect," she said.
This article was originally written in English. We used artificial intelligence to assist in translation and was reviewed by BBC journalists before publication. Learn more about how we use artificial intelligence.
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