Here's how much value a "haunted" property loses.

Seen on The Social Medias: A claim that there’s a job in Japan sleeping in a house where there was a suicide or murder in order to prove to potential buyers that it’s ghost-free.

Although this sounds like some government mandated thing, it’s not. The post goes on to say that some realtor started a company to offer this as a service; no word on what kind of uptake it’s seen.

The whole post is, obviously, intended to make us think “Oh, Japanese people must all believe strongly in ghosts. Ha ha ha.” Do they? Honestly, I didn’t know; so I set about to find out.

The post refers to a Chiba-based company called Kachimode Co., founded by realtor Kazutoshi Kodama. They send some ghost hunters in equipped with thermal cameras, EMF meters, and video/audio recorders. Amazingly, they never record any proof of ghosts, so they then provide a “Certified ghost free!” certificate.

Japan has a law requiring the disclosure of “stigmatizing incidents” like suicides and murders for three years.1 Rent prices are discounted 20-50% in such properties!!!2

Compare this to the United States, where there is no such national disclosure mandate (though some states have them). I didn’t find directly comparable rent discounts, but for home values, the price is discounted 3-6%, obviously much less than in Japan. However, if it’s a big national headlines murder, we see a reduction of around 20%, and other homes in the neighborhood see around a 4% reduction in value. Even this higher number is still much less than in Japan.

So let’s call this one “provisionally confirmed.” In the hour or two I was able to spend on this over the weekend, I found enough that it seems clear that “haunted properties” lose far more of their value in Japan than in the United States. Thus, Kodama-san’s service is probably well worth the money to sellers!