Supernatural Kabukicho Ghost Stories Born on the Rooftop

With the summer vacation starting, middle and high school students without a place at home gather around the Tōyoko area, making Kabukicho increasingly lively. Even in the bustling Kabukicho, where people are always around, summer brings out supernatural rumors.

“Soaplands in enclosed spaces are prone to rumors of supernatural phenomena. They can’t be rebuilt, and the rooms are all windowless. At the shop where I worked, during summer, whenever I went to the storage room to put away things or turned off the sound on the wired broadcasting in a darkened room, I would hear a knocking sound like someone tapping from the ceiling.” (Yukine, pseudonym, 28)

Kabukicho has famous haunted spots like the ‘6th Tōa Building.’ Recently, a love hotel standing in a dark alley near Okubo Park has gone out of business. The red carpet thrown near the entrance is covered with a lot of empty cans, and the streetlight adds to the eerie atmosphere.

“When I walked in front of that hotel with a friend who has strong psychic abilities, they said, ‘Kabukicho overall is creepy, but especially here it’s bad. Just walking here makes me feel sick.’ It seems like the air was thick and suffocating not just from ghosts but also from the resentment and emotions of the living” (Ruri, pseudonym, 21).

Checking summary sites for accident properties in the area reveals that many people have died from strangulation or hanging suicides, suffering around their necks. In this way, ghost stories come up, but Kabukicho isn’t just about scary stories.

“It was last summer, I think. I was drinking with a girl at a bar, and when we went outside around 4 a.m., we heard a faint, distressing female voice from nowhere. It sounded like ‘U, Uu~.’ It was frightening because there were no people around, and it also sounded like a groan. It could have been someone in a dangerous state from an overdose. I bought water from a vending machine and walked toward the direction of the sound, using my phone’s light” (Ren, pseudonym, 24).

I left the girl waiting there and followed the sound of the voice, which led me to a fire escape between two nearby mixed-use buildings.

“It was unusually dark. The groaning sound from above turned into a distressing shriek, which made me even more worried, so I climbed the stairs up to the fifth floor. When I finally reached the top floor… I found a host with a female customer in the landing area (laughs). I was out of breath too, and while the host was panting and grinding away, he said, ‘Sorry, we’re using this area, so please use another floor'” (same as above).

The rooftops of old buildings in Kabukicho, which are easily accessible, are famous as suicide spots, but at the same time, they also become places for passionate encounters between men and women. Koharu, a hostess addicted to the host scene (pseudonym, 25), describes it this way.

“When I was drinking all night with my assigned host and his junior, by morning, my host got overly excited. As soon as we left the bar, he started undressing and hugging me, trying to start something on the street. In a pinch, the junior host quickly said, ‘Koharu-san! I know a nearby rooftop, let’s go there!’ and led me away (laughs). Hosts really do know their rooftops well.

Later, when I told someone about it, they were shocked to hear that it was a building where several people had jumped to their deaths! Well, I ended up going to that rooftop a few more times with other hosts ♡ This is how information about the less-secure rooftops in Kabukicho spreads.”

This time I interviewed ghost stories in Kabukicho, but the stories that came up were mostly like this. Kabukicho is a place where human activities create strange phenomena, not just supernatural ones.

He is currently participating in the filming of the drama “Shinjuku Field Hospital” (Fuji Television Network),
Sasaki Chihuahua’s book “Host! Standing! To Yoko! Overdose na Hito-tachi” (Kodansha) is now on sale!

From the August 23 and 30 combined issue of “FRIDAY” (Japanese only)