On 24 May, members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet convened to make and official statement concerning long standing rumors swirling around the opposition party. These rumors are regarding the Prime Minister’s Residential Quarters (Sori Daijin Kotei) and the super spooky ghosts that may dwell inside.

Since taking power last September Prime Minister Abe has implied, “I’m not spending the night in that place,” by never spending the night in that place.

The Prime Minister’s Residential Quarters was built in 1929 and designed by noted architect Frank Lloyd Wright. However, a few years later the building was one of the locations of the 2-26 Incident, a bloody coup d’état by young rebel soldiers which targeted then-PM Keisuke Okada.

Okada had been sympathetic to Western countries and opposed Hideki Tojo, the man who would later order the Pearl Harbor attack. Although Okada survived the attempted assassination several others were killed in the house. Some say that you can still find bullet holes here and there around the building.

Moreover the land on which the Residential Quarters was built had been mentioned in a traditional bakeneko (monster cat) story. Bakeneko are cats which can stand, walk, or dance on their hind legs and have the power to bless or curse (usually curse) those they come in contact with. Here’s an example of a bakeneko story in the form of a movie trailer.

During his very brief time in office during the ’90s, former Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata had lived in the building. His wife Yasuko wrote of her time there in her memoirs.

“I felt – shall I say – chills running through the house. It was like something feeling around your chest. The atmosphere was very odd.”

She goes on to say she invited an acquaintance over to “cleanse” the premises. While there the woman told her that the place was “teaming with ghosts.”

After the cabinet meeting, Chief Cabinet Secretary Kan spoke to the press. He acknowledged the rumors saying, “whenever we hold meetings there, the topic usually comes up.”

He also announced the government’s official stance regarding the ghosts with a smile: “We dunno.”

Source: FNN (Japanese)
Images: Wikipedia –WTCA, Zagyoso, Tobosha
Video: YouTube – kechapp