'I live with a ghost': Japan's haunted homes attract bargain hunters

Although Japan has increasingly marked Halloween, external in recent years, many Japanese people take ghosts seriously all year round. The country has a word, "yuurei", which means a lingering, troubled spirit.These are the ghosts of people who died in violent or tragic circumstances - those who were murdered, killed themselves, or simply were lonely and died alone. If they died at home, then the belief is that their yuurei won't go away.For house hunters who are not superstitious or squeamish it means there are big bargains to be found. There is a whole category of dwellings called jiko bukken, which means "stigmatised" or "incident" properties.Under guidelines issued by the government in 2021, Japanese estate agents must disclose suicide, murder, death by fire, and any death where the body was not discovered for an extended period of time.For rental properties this information must be disclosed for three years, and it must be revealed indefinitely for any property offered for sale.By contrast, in the UK there is no legal requirement, external to reveal that a person died in a property. And in the US, it differs from state to state., external For example, in California you have to...