This is a dodgy article.<p>I've lived in Japan for almost a decade and heard about these "cheap suicide apartments" exclusively from foreigners or Japanese people who "learned" about it from foreigners; whenever I looked around for Japanese sites for this kind of thing, the "discounted rent" would be the same or around $5 to $40 cheaper per month, well within the normal variation for apartments in the same building (due to facilities, size, shape, location, time since renovation, etc.).<p>Additionally, the "cited" articles talk about the extortionate practices of individual landlords who seem to be taking advantage of the families' grief to send them through the wringer for more money, rather than "cheap suicide apartments."<p>The real story here is the minority of shady landlords who indulge in those practices -- no doubt they would also be the ones who keep your deposit and additionally try to charge thousands of dollars for "cleaning" fees after you move out. This kind of scum exists in every country.
I follow how there can be liability, but unless the families are co-signing how can they be liable?<p>Can families that fight back recoup legal costs potentially getting a judgement against some or all of the landlord's property?<p>The post raises more questions than answers. Seems like a "proper" legal system should deal with this soon enough without any extra legislation. Granted it's Japan.
Can anyone elaborate if these are the hot tip for people that don't care about this stuff (expats?) to get a cheap place, or not so much in reality? Seems like an obvious thing, so I bet it isn't ;)
It feels like the loses from a suicide apartment should be covered by insurance, rather than estates or families of the deceased. I'm not saying this insurance does or doesn't exist (I don't know); but this is the "ideal" case for it.<p>This way, families can grieve in peace and the landlords can't bully their way to get "repairs" done.
I partially wish that the US had the same stigma so I could exploit it. I'd happily live in an apartment where someone committed suicide, since there's absolutely no logical basis for fearing it.
The older the place you live in, the more likely someone died there.<p>And given how old civilization is, I bet someone probably died within 1000 feet of where you live right now.<p>Certainly hundreds of animals have died around you for sure, many within your lifetime.<p>In fact you probably ate a dead creature today.<p>WTF is with people and "ghosts" ?
I find this curious, since nobody seems to have a problem with hospitals where lots of people die. If people haunt the place where they die, wouldn't a hospital be crammed with them? Why don't ghost hunters look in hospitals?
> "In one case, a young woman killed herself in her apartment and the landlord showed up during her funeral to demand ¥6 million (~$75,500) so that he could hire a priest to “cleanse” the property."<p>Any Japanese people here to comment on this specific point that there are "exorcists" who dedicate their time and effort for this economic activity and that's well established phenomenon there?
This isn't the only article i read on this topic. It's shocking to me how inconsiderate the Japanese are of suicide and grieving. Just goes to tell you what happens to a society when a troubling issue is ignored - it becomes mundane part of daily life and the majority ceases to care.