Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay
Japan is well know for its orderliness, cleanness, safety, strict gun control, and its best lost-and-found program in every public place. However its politics is not so peaceful and uneventful as it seems. The prime minister’s official residence (called Kantei) is a famous haunted house–haunted by bloody incidences in its history.
It is said the official prime minister’s residence was built in 1920s and finished in 1929. It combined the traditional Japanese architectural style with Frank Lloyd Wright’s design. Soon afterwards in May 15, 1932, then Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi, in this Kantei, saw 11 navel officers breaking in. He tried to talk with them at first, but the killer had no intention to say anything. They just opened fire and killed him.
In 1937, more than 1400 army officers surrounded Kantei. They came to assassinate the prime minister Keisuke Okada, but only succeeding in killing Okada’s brother and several ministers who were having a meeting there.
Ever since these two bloody events, wild rumors have been spreading about this cursed house. It is said blood is flowing instead of water if you turn on any faucet. Strange sounds are heard in every room etc. Each prime minister who went to live there had his own way to fend off the evil spirit. For example, Morihiro Hosokawa would burn incense in each room continuously. Tsutomu Hata’s wife invited the most famous psychic to come to take a look. And the psychic told the prime minister’s wife to spray salt all over the house, especially in the backyard.
When Keizō Obuchi became the prime minister, he decided that he wanted to pull down this accursed house and built a new one. Immediately after uttering such a blasphemous statement against the ghostly spirit, he fell to the floor in a coma and soon died.
His successor Yoshirō Mori was tortured by the strange sounds, winds, and images that he couldn’t sleep well. And it is said his many verbal gaffes, for which he was well known, was caused by ghosts rather than by his own design.
I’ve never been to a haunted house and never heard of a haunted house that’s near me. However I once read a book “Weird NJ”. Actually it’s a series of books and I only read one. There are many haunted house listed in there which exist in the vicinity, but now I have forgotten what I read at the time. I can’t even remember one story from that book.
Haoyan Do 
Wow, I had no idea about this house but it’s an interesting story. I don’t know if I believe in ghosts but I definitely would never seek them out at a haunted house lol.
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I should have written something about Abe, the prime minister who was assassinated last week, but it would involve WWII, his grandfather who’s a war criminal and a lot of other things. I tried to stay away from the politics since I was so disillusioned. Writing about the political aspect of things will only show my cynical side…
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Yeah that makes sense. Writing about politics can get messy sometimes.
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It’s so ironic that I recently saw a documentary of a ghost hunter in India who visits known haunted places. He definitely claims that he has never seen or sensed a ghostly presence in any of those places. Could it be that his mind is stronger than his heart and that he sees what he believes? I do think that spirits exist, but am glad that I’ve never seen one. Very interesting post. 🙂
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Me too. I feel the same way and I’ve never seen a ghost myself. Probably because I don’t believe it. I guess if you don’t believe it, it just doesn’t exist. Haha, “a ghost hunter”. That’s such a beautiful phrase. We have a saying that don’t believe in ghosts and don’t offend ghosts. LOL.
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What a neat ghost story. My children used to claim our house is haunted, but i don’t think so.
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Haha, they must have heard something or seen something. Or probably just their imaginations. LOL.
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I think it stems from the fact that our house used to be a funeral parlor years ago and their imagination.
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Oh, I am very intrigued. I want to know more about the ghosts, even the imaginary ghosts… Please tell us more. I and your other fans all want to hear that.
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T here isn’t much to tell. I wrote a twoshort stories about when my youngest son thought there was something in the house he needed to find, I t ended up being a few bones in the basement.
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Oh, the ghosts. They are hiding, afraid of being detected. I guess they are very friendly ghosts from the past.
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Maybe you never grew up in the area like I did, but the Northeast is full of haunted locations. Even as a kid I heard of rumors of this place or that place being haunted. I even pass by a haunted cemetery on the way to work.
I just looked this up, the Piscatawaytown Burial Ground is a haunted place in Edison. Maybe there is a ghost tour there.
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Haha, thank you. That’s nice to know. Actually I have passed several cemeteries in the area, one very big between Edison and Woodbridge. My friend H used to shut her eyes whenever we passed such a place. I still remember what she said, “why there’s a housing compound right next to the burial ground? And the real estate values? Don’t they care?”
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