The Creepiest Japanese Urban Legends To Keep You Up At Night

Jen Lennon
Updated April 20, 2020 314.5K views 16 items
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Vote up the scariest urban legend from Japan

There are so many scary urban legends from Japan. The country has a rich history of ghost stories. Yūrei, similar to ghosts in Western culture, are the subject of many classic folk tales. But Japan doesn’t just have creepy folklore. There are plenty of modern Japanese urban legends that are so scary, you can’t even speak them aloud without becoming cursed.

 

This list includes many terrifying tales from Japan. There is, somehow, more than one story of a ghost haunting a toilet. There are also stories about secluded villages, murderous families, women with sharp objects - you name a terrifying thing, this list has it. Including dolls. What, you didn’t think you were going to be spared a scary doll story, did you? Enjoy these creepy urban legends, and try not to get too scared.

  • 1

    Teke Teke

    Teke Teke

    This story starts with a tragedy: A girl accidentally pushed off the platform at a train station just as the train was pulling in was cut in half and perished on impact. Some time later, a boy was walking home from school alone. He saw a girl through a window. She was leaning on the window sill with her elbows, looking outwards. When she saw the boy, she pushed herself through the open window.

    There was nothing the boy could do except stand there, horrified. He had just seen a girl fall from a window, and on any other day, that probably would have been his low point. It might’ve even been the low point of his whole life, if he got to live it. See, after the girl hit the ground, the boy realized something: she had no lower body. As he was trying to process this, the girl pushed herself up with her hands and started crawling toward the boy. She was at his feet before he had time to run. He didn’t even realize what she was carrying until the scythe was midway through his waist. As the two halves of his body fell to the ground, it was the sound that she made as she dragged herself toward him - teke, teke - that he heard last.

    3,042 votes
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  • 2

    Kuchisake-onna

    Kuchisake-onna

     

    If you ever find yourself alone on a quiet, foggy street after dark in Japan, you should probably beeline for the nearest populated place because you might just encounter Kuchisake-onna.

    At first, you probably won’t be too upset about running into the woman who seemed to just appear out of thin air right in front of you. She’s gorgeous and demure, wearing a white surgical mask over her mouth. She asks you, “Am I beautiful?” You say "Yes," because she really is. She takes off her surgical mask for you. Her mouth has been slit from ear to ear. She asks, “How about now?” You:

    A.) Say, “No.” She slices your mouth from ear to ear with a pair of scissors, giving you a beautiful smile just like hers.

    B.) Say, “Yes.” She allows you to leave, and you think you’ve gotten off the hook. But when you arrive home, she appears again, killing you in your own doorway.

    C.) Say, “Maybe.” This confuses her. You run; she’s so flummoxed that she doesn’t chase you and you escape.
     

    Do you think you would be composed enough to trick her? Or would you fall victim to a scissor-wielding maniac?

    3,776 votes
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  • 3

    Dream School

    Dream School

    According to legend, if you don’t forget this story within a week, it will happen to you. So if you’re worried about being cursed, don’t read on.

    One night, a boy had a dream about a school. It was a school he didn’t recognize, and as he wandered the halls, he became increasingly unsettled. The hallway he walked down was a continuous loop, always bringing him back to where he started. He climbed stairs only to find himself back on the first floor. The school was a maze he couldn’t figure out, and as he started to become scared, he heard the sound of footsteps behind him. The sound was faint and far away, but instinctively, he ran. The footsteps got closer and closer. He found an emergency exit with a glass lock box that held the key right next to it, but the glass had already been smashed. The key was missing. In its place, there was a note that said the key was in room 108.

    The boy ran off in search of room 108, and when he found it, he shut the door behind him. There were no students, but there were backpacks hanging off every chair. He searched them all frantically, turning out the drawers of the teacher’s desk, but it was no use. The footsteps caught up with him. Now someone was pounding on the door. And as the boy cowered, the pounding just...stopped. The boy opened the door to the hallway, but quickly, he wished he hadn’t. The corridor was littered with children's corpses, their limbs scattered from end to end. He never woke up from his dream. And if you don’t forget this story in one week, you’ll have the same dream - and be resigned to the same fate.

    2,590 votes
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  • 4

    The Girl From The Gap

    The Girl From The Gap

    You know that small gap between your dresser and the wall? Or between your bed and the floor? Don’t look in there. Because if you see a pair of eyes staring back at you, you’re in trouble.

    The first time you see the girl looking at you from a small gap, she’ll ask you if you want to play hide and seek. You don’t really have a choice. Even if you say no, you’re still locked into her game, which isn’t so much a game as it is an exercise in never letting your eyes lock on a gap ever again.

    If you see her a second time, she’ll drag you down to hell.

    2,821 votes
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  • 5

    Aka Manto

    Aka Manto

     

    As if public bathrooms weren’t already scary enough, there’s a Japanese urban legend called Aka Manto, or Red Cape, about some weirdo in a mask who hides out in the last stall of women’s restrooms and asks his victims a question that’s nearly impossible to answer. Get the answer wrong and you die a horrible death. If you get the answer right, you live, but you’ve still been playing twenty questions in a bathroom with a ghost. There’s kind of no way to win with this guy.

    The legend goes like this: Red Cape was extremely handsome in real life, attracting the attention of every woman who saw him. He became so fed up with women desiring him only for his looks that he began wearing a white mask, a tradition he continued in death. When you enter the last stall in the women’s restroom that he haunts, you’ll hear a voice.

     

    3,001 votes
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  • 6

    Himuro Mansion

    Himuro Mansion

    If you believe this legend, there’s a secluded, abandoned mansion just outside of Tokyo where a series of brutal slayings were carried out. The family who lived there would carry out a sick practice called “The Strangling Ritual.” They believed that there was a portal on their property that brought them bad karma from within the earth, so in order to seal the portal, they would choose a local village girl at birth, raise her in isolation, and then tie her wrists, and ankles, and neck to five oxen, which would rip her limbs and her head off her body. They would then take the rope, soak it in her blood, and lay it at the entrance of the portal. This protected them for 50 years.

    But something went wrong during the last ritual. The woman, who was supposed to have been raised in isolation, had formed a bond with a man who tried to rescue her. Because of this, the ritual didn’t work, and the patriarch slayed his entire family before falling on his own sword. Now, the mansion is said to be haunted by his family. Rumor has it that the walls are splattered with blood - fresh blood. Blood of the unfortunate people who go looking for the mansion, looking for a thrill, not knowing that the ghosts of the family are waiting for the next victim of the strangling ritual.

    1,893 votes
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  • 7

    Gozu

    Gozu

    Have you ever heard a story so scary that it made you catatonic and when you woke up you were foaming at the mouth? What about a story so scary that it ended your life? Well, okay, you probably wouldn’t know if you had experienced the second one. But that first one is a pretty common experience, right? No?

    The story of the Gozu is a legend within a legend. According to the tale, a story called the Gozu, or Cow Head, appeared in Japan around the 17th century. It was so horrific that almost all copies of it were destroyed; those unlucky enough to read or hear it trembled and shook for days before dying of fright. Only fragments of the tale remain to this day. 

    Another version of the story holds that a schoolteacher was taking his students on a field trip. Tired of their chaotic behavior on the bus, he decided to try and get their attention by telling them horror stories. He had read part of the Cow Head story in the past and repeated that small section to the children. He only meant to frighten them a little bit, but they began convulsing and begging him to stop. He couldn’t pause, though. His eyes turned white but he continued, telling parts of the story he had never heard before. Saying unspeakable things. Losing all control as the children screamed.

    He awoke a few hours later. The bus was in a ditch. The driver was slumped over the steering wheel, shaking. And the kids? They were all unconscious, foaming at the mouth.

    1,832 votes
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  • 8

    Tomino's Hell

    Tomino's Hell

    In 1919, Saijō Yaso published a collection of poetry that included a poem called “Tomino’s Hell.” It describes a young boy’s experience in hell after committing unspeakable acts. The poem is already pretty creepy, but the legend that surrounds it is even worse: it is said that if you read the poem, you must read it in your own head and never read it aloud. If you read the poem aloud, it causes disaster, and sometimes even death.

    You can read David Bowles’s translation of the poem here; just keep it to yourself, okay?

    1,467 votes
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  • 9

    Okiku Doll

    Okiku Doll

    You probably don’t need a reminder about why so many people are afraid of dolls, but here’s another terrifying story, just in case. There is an actual doll (not a mythical one) known as the Okiku doll on display in a temple in Japan. Why is a doll on display in a religious temple? Because rumor has it that its hair grows - on its own. For no apparent reason. And, as if that weren’t upsetting enough, a sample has supposedly confirmed that the hair that grows from the doll’s head is human.

    The doll was originally given to a 2-year-old girl by her brother in 1918. She passed a year later, and her family kept the doll as a remembrance of her. But soon they noticed that its hair appeared to be growing, so they brought it to a priest, who observed it for a few months and confirmed their story. The doll, which was named after the little girl who owned it, was put on display in the temple and remains there to this day.

    1,706 votes
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  • 10

    Purple Mirror

    Purple Mirror

    If you’re over the age of 20, good news! You won’t be affected by this story at all. But for all you teenagers out there, think carefully about reading on.

    A young girl was given a mirror by her mother. The girl loved the mirror and spent much of her time staring at herself in it. The girl was desperate to be beautiful, and she developed an eating disorder trying to maintain her beauty. Every time she looked in the mirror, she looked gorgeous.

    After a few years, the girl wanted to redecorate, so she painted the mirror purple. After it was painted, she looked into it and was shocked by her appearance. She was dangerously thin and her hair was limp and stringy. The eating disorder had taken a toll on her appearance, and now the girl could see that she was not maintaining her beauty; she was sabotaging it. Despondent, the girl threw the mirror on the ground, shattering it.

    She was making the final arrangements for her coming-of-age party on her 20th birthday when she was in a car accident. She perished at the scene, whispering, “Purple mirror…purple mirror…” Her parents searched for the mirror, but they never found it.

    It is said that if you do not forget the phrase “purple mirror” by your 20th birthday, you too will have a similar fate as the girl in the story. So just remember: forget the words “purple mirror.”

    1,363 votes
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  • 11

    Inunaki Village

    Well, this is just great. As if there wasn’t enough to worry about - dolls, toilet ghosts, ghost hitchhikers - now we have to deal with secluded, lawless villages as well?

    Apparently, deep in the foothills in Japan, there is a village called Inunaki. There is a gate out front with a sign warning outsiders that the laws of Japan don’t apply to their settlement. And inside? Just imagine what lawlessness could do to a place.

    There’s cannibalism, slaying, robbery - oh, and good luck getting out, because once you enter, you never return.

    1,142 votes
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  • 12

    Hanako-san

    Hanako-san

    Another terrifying story about a bathroom. What’s the deal with you and toilets, Japan?

    In this tale, Hanako-san is the ghost of a young girl who haunts the girls’ bathroom at Japanese public schools. She can be found in the third stall in the restroom on the third floor. Schoolchildren whisper instructions on how to conjure her: you have to knock on the door of her stall three times, call her name, and ask if she’s there.

    At this point, local legends vary about what she does. Sometimes she pulls you into the toilet. Sometimes she just yells and frightens you. Her motive seems strictly to terrify young girls, but at least she isn't out to end lives.

    1,186 votes
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  • 13

    Kiyotaki Tunnel

    Kiyotaki Tunnel

    This tunnel in northern Japan was purportedly built by slaves, many of who passed during its construction. Combine that with the fact that the tunnel is 444 meters long (four is an unlucky number in Japan), and this place is ripe for rumors of it being haunted.

    From tales of screaming ghosts to an apparition jumping onto the hoods of oncoming cars, this is one route you probably want to avoid.

    1,011 votes
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  • 14

    Ghost Taxi

    Ghost Taxi

    In this traditional legend, a taxi driver picks up a passenger on a dark, quiet road. There’s no one else in sight. The passenger asks to be taken to an address out of town. The taxi driver obliges and lets the passenger settle in for the long ride. They don’t talk much. When they arrive, the driver turns around to find the back seat empty; the passenger has disappeared.

    This tale is often told from a personal perspective, with the speaker claiming it happened to a relative, or a friend of a friend.

    996 votes
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  • 15

    Hitobashira

    Hitobashira (which translates to “human pillar”) is an old ritual from Japan. In ancient times through the 16th century, when a large building project began, a human sacrifice would sometimes be offered to the gods in the hopes that they would protect the building or infrastructure from floods and attacks. The person would be buried alive under or near the project. Unsurprisingly, this former practice has spawned a few urban legends.

    The most prominent of these legends concerns Maruoka Castle. The castle was commissioned by a samurai, but as it was being built, the walls kept collapsing. A sacrifice was suggested, and it was decided that an old, one-eyed woman named Oshizu should be the hitobashira. She agreed, but only on one condition: her son would become a samurai. The lord of the castle agreed, and after she was sacrificed, the castle was built without any more trouble. But the lord was soon transferred to another area and her son never became a samurai. Every spring after that, the castle’s moat would flood, and the villagers believed the rain was caused by Oshizu’s spirit. They called the rain “the tears of Oshizu’s sorrow.” A memorial was erected to help calm her spirit.

    929 votes
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  • 16

    Happyaku Bikuni

    Happyaku Bikuni

    This is another Japanese folk tale, which teaches the very important lesson of not eating mermaids. There was a fisherman who caught a mermaid while out at sea. He took it home, cooked it, and invited many of his friends over to partake in the meal. But he didn’t tell them what he was cooking, and one of the guests slipped into the kitchen and saw the fish he was butchering had a woman’s face. He warned the other guests not to eat it, and they all slyly slipped their servings of fish into their pockets as they ate.

    One man forgot to empty his pockets and throw away the fish, and when he returned home, his daughter asked for a treat. He had had too much sake, and, without thinking, gave her the fish. Everything was fine - until, years later, she realized she was no longer aging. The woman married several times, outliving all her husbands as they grew old and she did not. Eventually, the woman realized she could do plenty of good with all the extra time she had on Earth, and she became a Buddhist nun. She dedicated her life to the cause, eventually rising through the ranks of the religion and giving this story its translated title: The Eight-Hundred-Year Buddhist Priestess.

    1,311 votes
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