Most people wouldn’t willingly choose to live in a home knowing someone died there, but one real estate company in Japan is looking to attract buyers to these seemingly haunted properties.
Japan has long dealt with the issue of “jiko bukken,” or “accident properties” where residents have died alone, been murdered or died by suicide, The Times reported. Naturally, many residents are hesitant to move in, believing the deceased’s spirits still inhabit the homes. As a result, jiko bukken add to the growing list of millions of vacant homes across the country.
Real estate veteran Kazutoshi Kodama is looking to change that.
Kodama founded the company Kachimode three years ago, offering ghost investigation services to tenants and buyers. To do this, he stays overnight in properties and uses video recordings, thermal cameras, an electromagnetic field meter and other tools to search for otherworldly presences who’ve made themselves at home.
Once Kodama deems a property ghost-free, he issues a certificate noting its spiritual safety. Customers who aren’t satisfied and prove a ghostly presence after his work is completed get a one million yen ($6,765) refund.
“Jiko bukken may be a kind of understanding peculiar to the Japanese,” Kodama told the Times. “The fact that someone died in the property cannot be denied, causing a psychological feeling of disgust. The purpose of my work is to arrest the decline in rent caused by this feeling and recover property values.”
In one case, a Tokyo apartment sat empty for years after a young woman died by suicide in the property. The landlord, desperate to fill the unit, hired Kodama, who stayed there for three nights and declared it was ghost-free. When a new tenant moved in, knowing of the property’s jiko bukken status, they paid 95 percent of the average rent for the size and location.
Between 35,000 and 40,000 residences in Japan become jiko bukken each year, whether via suicide at home or from people aged 65 and older dying alone, according to police data cited by The Times.
“Although people died in these residences, jiko bukken properties are cleaned and refurbished and remain usable,” Kodama said. “I’d like to add value to them by satisfying landlords and tenants. With rising real estate prices, the number of those who can still afford to buy a home is limited. So there’s a role for jiko bukken to play.”
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