A 7.6 earthquake in early December changed the plans of Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi. Arriving 35 minutes late to her office after the natural disaster, the president chose to move her home to a residence adjacent to her offices.
The news does not stop there. The most striking thing is that there are those who claim that Takaichi’s new house is haunted.
Until now, the president was staying in a residence for members of Parliament. But the earthquake episode sparked a debate about response times and protocols, and pushed Takaichi to live “next to” power, literally.
The detail is that the building you have just arrived at has a reputation that mixes heavy history and superstition: it is a stone and brick mansion inaugurated in 1929, associated with violent episodes of the 1930s and stories of apparitions that, over time, built the myth of a “haunted” residence.
The prime minister moved to another house for practicality. Photo: APThe residence was the scene of two coup attempts in the 1930s. In 1932, Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai was murdered by young officers; In 1936, a group of rebels tried to kill his successor, Keisuke Okadawho managed to hide, while other people died during the attack.
From those events there was even a specific mark that fuels the legend: a bullet hole preserved near the main entrance, as a reminder of a time when Japanese politics was settled by gunfire.
With this history, it is not surprising that testimonies of “presences”, shadows and noises.
The idea that “something was left” there became part of the folklore of power in Tokyo: some say that those who settle in that residence usually do not last long in office, a kind of political curse with roots in tragedy.
Between architecture, rituals and “exorcisms”
Beyond the paranormal side, The building is an institutional and architectural symbol. For years there was confusion about his style being linked to Frank Lloyd Wright, although the chronicle makes it clear that it was not his work.
The front of the prime minister’s residence.Between 2002 and 2005, extensive renovations were made that included a dedication ceremony. shinto cleansing. For many, this gesture worked – at least in the imagination – as a symbolic “exorcism” to ward off the bad energies associated with decades of violence and rumors.
Recent history also shows that not everyone takes the “haunted house” reputation seriously.
According to versions reported by the press, the predecessor Shigeru Ishiba He lived there and said he was not afraid of ghosts; Fumio Kishida He claimed not to have seen anything strange and to have slept without problems.
Others, like Shinzo Abe y Yoshihide Sugachose to live elsewhere for years, leaving the residence unoccupied for long periods and, for believers, “unaccompanied” by their supposed spirits.
Takaichi, on the other hand, is betting on the logic of management: being meters from the office in a country where an earthquake can change the agenda in minutes. The challenge will be whether their new routine – already demanding – adapts to a house that, in addition to history, carries a story that returns every time someone crosses the door.
