Top 10 Most Haunted & Ghost Places in Japan

Sally Polly October 28, 2021 | 07:34

If you are looking for the best haunted stories to tell, Japan is the right place. Take a look at these terrifying and scary places in this country that will give you nightmares.

Top 10 Most Haunted Places in Japan

Japan is a weirdly wonderful country, from its unique food to cultural obsession with things like anime, and cosplay. The country is spread over 6,852 islands and each region has its distinctive environment and culture. One thing that unites the Japanese is their love for paranormal activity and the country produces a lot of horror movies, TV series, books, and more. The inspiration for these come from real haunted places in Japan and there are certainly quite a lot of them!

List of top 10 most haunted and ghost places in Japan

10. Labyrinth – The Scary Hospital

9. SSS Curve – The Martyrs Of The WW

8. Huis Ten Bosch – The House Of Horrors

7. Ikego Middle Gate

6. Round Schoolhouse – A Creepy Building

5. Okiku’s Well – The Shrieking Banshee

4. Camp Hansen Gate 3

3. Nakagusuku Hotel ruins (中城ホテル跡)

2. Oiran Buchi – The Wailing Women

1. Inukane Pass Tunnel – The Whispering Tunnel

What are the most haunted and ghost places in Japan?

10. Labyrinth – The Scary Hospital

Photo: April and Summer

Listed as one of the largest and scariest haunted houses in the world, Fuji-Q Highland’s Labyrinth of Fear is not a place for the fearful. With its hospital setting and 900 meters of puzzling maze to deal with amid strange echoes and sounds, this two-story building depicts the perfect labyrinth of fear.

The Labyrinth of Fear has a history traced to a popular hospital close to Mount Fuji where doctors were accused of selling internal organs of patients and disposing of their bodies which occasioned the spirits of the dead victims to haunt back and kill many doctors, a legend that has lived ever since.

The craziest experience we had (I went there with one more person) was the Room of No Escape where we were confined in a confusing space with weird ambience, no visible exit route, and ghosts chasing after us. That was so horrifying that I ended up losing my voice due to shouting non-stop. I doubt I would ever have the guts to try Fuji-Q’s haunted house again. Lol

If you think you’ve got the nerves to try out the eerie sounds, experience strange sights and smells, and walk through extremely dark passages, then the Labyrinth of Fear is for you!

But if you really can’t take it anymore, no worries. There are pink doors marked “retire” in a few parts of the building where you can just take the moment you decide to give up. But don’t you dare! The Labyrinth of Fear is something you would be proud of once you complete the 50 minutes of pure terror!

9. SSS Curve – The Martyrs Of The WW

Located in Okinawa, Japan, this stretch of road is said to be haunted. During WWII, many japanese soldiers lost their lives here. It’s is said that their spirits still haunt the places they fell, including the SSS Curve. Not much information is known about this particular place, but visitors have had their paranormal experiences. Some people have claimed to have episodes of nausea, dizziness, and the feeling of someone’s hand on their body. Not to mention the feeling of being watched. Some reports say that they see ghostly figures with soldier clothing walking in the area. Many paranormal investigators have visited this area to try and capture this paranormal phenomena.

In case the haunted places in Sasebo Japan don’t scare you enough then head to the SSS Curve in Okinawa. Okinawa suffered extensive carnage due to the World War and led to the deaths of many Japanese Soldiers. It is said that these soldiers come back to haunt this part of the road and visitors often feel a surge of nausea, dizziness, and the feeling of someone’s hand on their body. Several Japanese paranormal TV hosts have visited the place to record this phenomenon. It’s all sorts of spooky you don’t want to feel on the road!

8. Huis Ten Bosch – The House Of Horrors

Photo: Japan Travel

Huis Ten Bosch (ハウステンボス, Hausu Ten Bosu) is a theme park in Sasebo, Nagasaki, Japan which recreates the Netherlands by displaying life-sized copies of old Dutch buildings. The name Huis Ten Bosch translates into English as "House at the Woods/Forest". It is named after Huis ten Bosch in The Hague, one of the three official residences of the Dutch Royal Family.

The park features many Dutch-style buildings such as hotels, villas, theatres, museums, shops and restaurants, along with canals, windmills, amusement rides, and a park planted in seasonal flowers. Huis Ten Bosch, which opened on March 25, 1992, is located around 12 km southeast of Sasebo. It is on Hario Island, essentially an area of reclaimed marshland on the main coastline of Kyushu facing Ōmura Bay. Its location in this area of the country reflects the historical relations between the Netherlands and Japan, which began in 1609 when a trading post was opened by the Dutch in Hirado, an island off the coast of Kyushu around 35 km northwest of central Sasebo. The Huis Ten Bosch park is open daily from 9.00 a.m. to 9.30 p.m. (9.00 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. from December to February). A day "passport" ticket, covering entry and a number of attractions within the park costs 5,600 yen for adults and 4,400 yen for children. The park can be reached by JR train or bus from Nagasaki. It can also be reached by boat from Nagasaki Airport or from Sasebo.

The park recorded the peak of 4.25 million visitors in 1996. However, due to the fall of the number of visitors caused by economic slump in Japan, the park declared bankruptcy in 2003 with debt of 220 billion yen. The rebuilding plan was sponsored by Nomura Principal Finance Company until March 2010, when H.I.S., a travel agency, took over the management by injecting 2 billion yen.

In 2015, the Henna Hotel ("Strange Hotel") opened on site. It is the world's first hotel staffed by robots, although humans will initially work alongside them.

7. Ikego Middle Gate

Photo: Adventure in Yokohama Citizen Forest

Located in Yokosuka, Japan lies an old Japanese concentration camp from World War II and a haunted forest that surrounds it. This land has many evil things that have happened on its soil.

Between 1192 and 1333, the forrest that surrounds the area was home to many samurai warriors. A war begun when enemies of the Kamakura went to seize Ikego. In 1333 the city fell and mass suicides occurred by beheading, immolation and seppuku. It is said that the samurai who died there still linger within the trees.

The next happening is the findings of mass burial grounds in the hills built in the 16th and 17th centuries. Ikego has about fifty burials that house human remains and pottery. But the horrors of this place don’t end here.

During World War II, the Japanese used this place as a weapons depot and a prisoner of war camp. Thousands of Chinese and Korean’s were put to work and killed in this place. The five incinerators are still standing to this day. The place was soon turned into a housing complex for US troops. Not the most tasteful place. It is said that all the prisoners whom died still haunt this place. Many people have claimed of hearing cry’s for help.

The camp has three gates: the main, the middle and the back gate. Guards at the middle gate reports hearing footsteps, voices and feel like they are being watched. To make things worse, some have reported seeing a soldier with WWII clothing, crawling on the ground (or floating) who is missing his legs.

Each year, the camp holds a harvest and haunted Forrest festival that allows visitors to come into the grounds and camp. Many visitors have reported ghostly encounters near their camp or around in the Forrest.

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6. Round Schoolhouse

Photo: Abandoned Kansai

Scary apparitions, noisy ghosts, floating lights, irregular shapes, abandoned vehicles, every paranormal activity in the book have been rumored to have happened at the Round Schoolhouse in Hokkaido. The school was built in a distinctive round shape in 1906 and was run like an elementary school. However, it shut down in the 1970s and since then has been abandoned. Soon after, these stories of paranormal sightings started coming in and several paranormal enthusiasts made a beeline to check out the stories.

Many of them came back with troubling stories of things they saw and heard and it is said that few of them returned raving mad and talked incoherently. It continues to be a top spot in the list of haunted attractions in Japan.

5. Okiku’s Well – The Shrieking Banshee

Photo: Pinterest

In the kabuki play Bancho Sarayashiki, Okiku is a maid at the mansion of the Japanese samurai Tessan Aoyama. The samurai wants to seduce the cute girl but she rejects his advances. Aoyama uses a trick. He hides one of ten valuable Dutch plates and threatens Okiku to make public that she had stolen the plate unless she agrees to become his mistress. In her desperation Okiku throws herself into the well and drowns.

Okiku's ghost comes out every night, counting from one to nine and then breaks out into a terrible howling and sobbing. Finally Aoyama goes insane by the daily apparitions at night.

There are different versions of the ghost story of Okiku. What they all have in common is the description of her ghost coming out of the well and counting from one to nine and then breaking out into a heart-rendering sobbing.

In another version, Okiku really breaks a plate and is killed by her master and her corpse is thrown into the well.

In yet another version, it is the wife of Aoyama, who breaks the plate. To hide her guilt, she throws the broken plate into the well and accuses Okiku of having it stolen. In this version she is also killed by her master for punishment and thrown into the well.

There is also an alternate version for the end of the story. To stop the nightly sobbing, a friend of the family of Aoyama is hired. He is hiding at the well during the night and after Okiku had counted from one to nine, he is stepping forward shouting loudly "ten". From then on the ghost of Okiku was never seen again.

One of the tourist attractions on Himeji Castle is Okiku's well. In the Himeji version, Okiku was a servant of Aoyama, a retainer who planned a plot against his lord. Okiku overheard the plot and reported it to her lover, a loyal warrior. The plot was averted.

When Aoyama found out that Okiku had been the cause for his failure, he decided to kill her. So he accused her of having stolen one of ten valuable dishes. She was tortured to death and thrown into the well.

Okiku's well on Himeji Castle is in competition with another location of the well, the garden of the Canadian embassy in Tokyo - established on land bought from the Aoyama family. Looks like there are at least as many locations of the well of the poor girl as there are different versions of her story.

All the variations of the ghost story of Okiku have an extremely wrongful and cruel treatment of a poor girl of the lower classes in common. But different from the ghost story of Yotsuya, revenge towards the tormentor is not the big Leitmotiv (apart from one variation of the story).

4. Camp Hansen Gate 3

Photo: Youtube

World War II created a lot of destruction in Japan and left behind many dead soldiers. One such place which has witnessed this is the Camp Hansen in Okinawa. The camp is a United States Marine Corps base and supports over 6,000 marines. It is said that a lone soldier appears in blood-stained World War fatigues and asks for cigarettes from those nearby. These sightings have been widely reported, and even courageous marines refused to stand sentry at the gate. This eventually led to the closing of the Gate 3 where the soldier’s ghost is sighted. Because of this, it is counted among the most haunted places in Japan.

3. Nakagusuku Hotel ruins (中城ホテル跡)

Photo: Haikyo Explorations in Japan

The Nakagusuku Hotel site (中城ホテル跡, Nakagusuku Hoteru ato), also known as the Royal Hotel or Takahara or Kogen Hotel (高原ホテル, Takahara/Kōgen Hoteru), is an abandoned, unfinished hotel in Kitanakagusuku, Okinawa. It sits no more than 50 meters from the walls of Nakagusuku Castle.

It is believed to have been built by a wealthy businessman from Naha in order to take advantage of the 1975 Okinawa Ocean Exposition. The hill directly South of Nakagusuku Castle was chosen as the construction site because of the view of both the Pacific Ocean and the East China Sea. There were warnings given by monks from a nearby Buddhist temple that the site was home to numerous graves and sacred sites, but they were initially ignored. After many construction accidents, the workers refused to finish the complex. It now sits empty and overgrown by vegetation.

The hotel's most common name in Japanese is written as 中城高原ホテル跡 (Nakagusuku Takahara/Kogen Hotel site). The name is less of a name and more of a description. 高原 can be pronounced as either Takahara or Kōgen, the latter meaning plateau. An alternative name, Royal Hotel, is the supposed name that the builder intended for it, and is evidenced by the faded word "Royal" painted above the entrance.

2. Oiran Buchi – The Wailing Women

Photo: Mysterious World

Men have exploited women since the dawn of time, but the story of the prostitutes or the Oiran of Yamanashi still haunts people today. The Oiran Buchi bridge is counted among the scariest places in Japan. The tale goes back to the 16th century when the area had gold mines that were run by the Takeda Clan, who also ran brothels to keep the miners happy. After the Battle of Nagashino, the Takeda clan escaped from the area but not before killing all the prostitutes so they wouldn’t share the information about the mines. The clan members invited the prostitutes on the bridge and slashed the ropes! It is said that the wails and cries of the women can still be heard from the gorge below!

1. Inukane Pass Tunnel

Photo: Mysterious World

The Old Inunaki Tunnel is said by some to be one of the great three haunted spots of Japan. It’s particularly famous for a brutal murder that took place there. The report goes as follows:

On midday December 7th, 1988, the burned body of factory worker Umeyama Kouichi (20) was discovered at Inunaki Mountain Pass. Police arrested a group of youths (16~19yo) from the Takawa district under suspicion of killing Umeyama by pouring gasoline on him and setting him on fire.

Umeyama was said to be a very filial young man. At the time of the incident he was on his way home from work.

The incident began when the youths approached Umeyama who was waiting in his car at a stop light. “We need your car to pick up some girls so quit acting so tough and get out.” When Umeyama refused, the youths attacked and abducted him where they assaulted him once more. Spotting a break in the youths’ guard, Umeyama escaped and, despite his injuries, attempted to make his way home. However, unable to get any help from passing cars, he was captured by the group once again.

The angry youths tried to throw Umeyama off Kanda Port, however, not wanting to die he clung to the fence with all his might and withstood their assault. One of the youths, seeing Umeyama like this, felt remorse or perhaps fear and suggested they should stop. The ringleader, afraid their attack would be discovered, said to his friends “we’re all in this together” and so they decided to kill him.

They put Umeyama in the trunk of his car and beat him with cranks, wrenches and other tools. They tried to get rid of the body at Rikimaru Dam, but fearing the body would float they instead decided to burn the body so it would be impossible to identify who he was and made for the abandoned Old Inunaki Tunnel.

Arriving at the Old Inunaki Tunnel, they poured gasoline (which they acquired in a PET bottle at a gasoline station on the way, saying their bike had run out of gas) over Umeyama’s head. He screamed out in terror and it echoed loudly throughout the ghastly abandoned tunnel. Even before the incident there were many stories about vengeful ghosts in the old tunnel. Perhaps because of this, the youths flinched for just a moment, and Umeyama took the chance to run again, fleeing into the forest.

The youths called out to him. “We’re not gonna do anything so come out. We’re not lying.” Having suffered such violence it would be hard to believe such a statement, however for some reason Umeyama believed them and made himself known.

The youths captured him for the third time. They stuffed ripped clothes into his mouth, tied his hands and feet and repeatedly hit him over the head with a stone. It’s said the blood spray from this flew far enough away to land on the guardrail nearby. Yet he still wouldn’t die, and begging for his life, the youths once again poured gasoline over Umeyama and set him on fire. Umeyama struggled violently, writhing in pain as he still asked for help. It’s said that burnt remains of his clothes were also found scorched on the guardrail.

Driven mad with pain, Umeyama ran all the way back to the entrance of the tunnel where all of his strength finally left his body and he collapsed. The youths left, but they wanted to check that Umeyama was actually dead this time, so they returned to the scene and made sure he was no longer moving before returning to Fukuoka City.

At a bar afterwards the youths were heard cheerfully boasting, “We just killed someone! Set him on fire!”

Umeyama’s cause of death was said to be blood loss from the head. It’s impossible to imagine the pain and suffering he must have been in, his body being set alight until he finally died from blood loss.

Umeyama’s body was discovered at midday the following day and the youths arrested shortly after.

At the appeal trial held in Fukuoka Court on March 8th, 1991, the main perpetrator (21, 19yo at the time of the crime, a stallholder helper in Tagawa-gun, Fukuoka Prefecture) who was handed a sentence of life imprisonment at his first trial said, “There was no clear intention to kill, the sentence is too harsh” and sought a reduction to his sentence. However the presiding judge, Maeda Kazuaki, said, “The cruelty displayed is unlike any other seen in similar cases. The defendant played a central role and so bears a heavy responsibility.” The appeal was rejected and the other youths also found guilty.