In August, I had a neighbor move in the empty apartment above me. He stomps LOUD, I mean as if he is purposely slamming boots onto the floor. Every sound he makes is loud, slamming cabinets, doors etc. He frequently wakes me up at 4:30am, even on weekends. A lot of the time he is even up until midnight or 1am During the day he is obviously even more active. Imagine just hearing stomping at any time of the day or night. It’s like russian roulette trying to find a time to nap too. I am always SO tired I feel like I can’t do / enjoy anything. I’ve been going on 2 hour walks because I don’t even want to be home. Leopalace has sent multiple complaint letters to him. My job called Leopalace to call his job. It stopped for a little, but it was around the same time I got SLEEPING PILLS because it was so bad. But then I guess its effect hasn’t been as strong and he wakes me up. I wear my airpods for noise cancelling so much the inside of my ears have cuts and bleed sometimes. and he mostly makes low vibration sounds so I can still hear/feel it. My apartment will shake. This morning I finally called the police. I am so sick and tired. I literally feel sick. I’ve started to take these half awake naps in my English room. My teachers feel bad for me but don’t know what else I can do. My job won’t move me because they want proof and for me to make police reports. I’m trying to get proof, but it’s not like I sleep with my phone in my hand and shoot out of bed and record the moment I wake up. I have to groggily put my arm up to capture the sound and then I’m wide awake. I feel like I am losing my mind. My neighbor is also definitely aware because one day I knocked on my ceiling three times and he STOMPED three times back. I’ve seen him once before, he looks like a young Japanese guy that tries to walk like a gangster, which explains why his footsteps sound the way they do. I live in a factory town and one of my JTEs tried to explain how “factory men are.” I am the only woman in my building. I’m afraid now this is going to get worse since I called the police. I’m on the verge of calling it quits and leaving the country. This guy has slowly ruined my life here, and my location has little to no redeeming qualities. My weekends are wasted on sleeping during the day until he comes home, sometimes I’ll sleep until 6pm. I can’t move out because it’s too much money and my contract ends in March. I just wish they’d kick him out or my job could move me somewhere else. I have lived in some shitty situations but this has by far been the worst.
Edit: I have also been calling out of work. And used up all my off days. I feel so screwed.
Update: I was allowed to come home early and I took pills to sleep. For the past 2 or 3 hours he has been walking around stomping even louder. I think he is angry. I think I made things worse by calling the police. This is mental torture.
36 comments
Hey, I’m assuming you’re a JET. You need to be serious with your school and threaten to leave.
-edit- I have been in your shoes. I was a JET living in a shitty apartment in an inaka town that had black mold and rude noisy neighbor whose dog would wake me up at 4. I threatened to leave and they moved me to a new place in 2 months.
Tell your school you will be quitting due to the apartment they provided you (just a, “I’m thinking about leaving due to this situation, how many weeks notice do you need if I am going to quit). Be apologetic, nice, and sincere.
Schools/companies will rarely do something unless their bottom line is affected. Having to suddenly find and train a new teacher may give them the push they need to change apartments.
Best of luck!
Ah yes, good ol’ LeoPalace. I remember my sleepless nights too. Went on for a few months. My only salvation was when that problematic neighbor suddenly disappeared one day. No signs of him moving out or anything.
Sorry this is happening to you OP. Raise hell to your employer and the landlord.
Fuck him up OP!
Do not be afraid to tell your work the exact same thing you would say back home. Your living conditions are fucked, take the initiative to fix it. I promise they will not hate you. Start looking for apartments.
The apartment quality here is the main reason I’m leaving next year. It’s incredibly shit, yet everyone here accepts it. Baffling!
Sorry your going through this but honestly, you have to move out. Your staying in a cardboard cutout box and people are allowed to walk around at 12am..
I think you’ve also taken it too far that you would get worked up even if he is quiet, aka – waiting for him to move about. When that happens, ain’t nothing gonna fix the situation, we’ve all been there in this country or the next.
That is a really difficult problem, sleep is non-negotiable and vital to your health. Unfortunately, I do not have a lot of suggestions on how to get this guy to stop, but I used to work overnight at a hotel (sleeping during the day) so I do have some ideas on how to avoid noise when catching Z’s:
1. On [Amazon.jp](https://Amazon.jp) you can find various types of soft foam ear plugs. The reason your ears are hurting from the airpods is because they are hard although they are smooth. Ear plugs come in various sizes and there are even reusable/washable ones that have very high reviews and have the same shape as airpods. It looks like [these ones](https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/Comfortable-Soundproofing-Insulation-Reduction-Canceling/dp/B08MFG7HBJ/ref=sr_1_32?crid=1MO7OFUDI9JIX&keywords=soft%2Bfoam%2Bear%2Bplugs&qid=1698206624&sprefix=soft%2Bfoam%2Bear%2Bplu%2Caps%2C181&sr=8-32&th=1) are very popular.
2. Of course, if you use ear plugs when sleeping, how can you hear your alarm? I would recommend searching “vibrating alarm clock” on [Amazon.jp](https://Amazon.jp) and trying one of those. They make these alarm clocks for people in the deaf community and those who are hard of hearing, and so their vibration can be quite strong and easily wake you if you put it under your pillow (some I believe even go under the mattress?).
3. If you are worried that the ear plugs will prevent you from sleeping or that a vibrating alarm clock will be able to wake you, I would test them on a Friday night or the weekend. It is important that you can sleep comfortably *and* wake up easily.
4. To get proof of the noise: if you have a laptop you can install [Audacity](https://www.audacityteam.org/FAQ/) (it is free and open source). Before you go to bed, keep your laptop on/charging and begin recording with audacity. If the man is producing noise enough to shake your entire apartment, your laptop microphone should easily be able to pick this noise up. The beauty of this program is that it creates a sound wave of your recording, which can save you the stress and energy of trying to scrub through all of the audio. You can find the peaks of the sound waves in the recording and fast forward to those — from there it should be pretty easy to tell if the source of a peak is from your neighbor or an external sound. If you do this, I would recommend keeping some record of when you go to bed and when you wake up. Even a short video on your phone showing the time/date on your computer should be sufficient. With some simple math, it would be easy to say “I went to bed at X time and started the recording at the same time. This sound takes place 4.5 hours later at X + 4.5 time.”
I wish that I could give better advice but I hope that these suggestions are helpful. Good luck OP, I hope you can regain your sleep.
Things you should be doing:
* Keep records of the noise – get a notebook and just jot down every time they’re unreasonably noisy. Date, time, type of noise.
* Record samples of the noise using VIDEO on your phone (provides evidence that the noise is in your place, AND you can move around and pinpoint the noise getting louder with visual confirmation)
* If you can, get a [cheap decibel meter](https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/Temperature-Hygrometer-30-130dB-Indicator-Classroom/dp/B0CDFRSNJ1/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2AOJYQ53Q7BQ&keywords=decibel%2Bmeter&qid=1698207692&sprefix=decibel%2Bmete%2Caps%2C152&sr=8-1&th=1), and include the reading in the video. Ideally get one that shows peak reading like the one linked.
* You need to call the cops – every single time – and notify the building management and your employer (as they’re the defacto landlord) every time you call the cops. Log these calls and keep copies of any emails. In any email, remind them of how long the problem has been going on, and how badly it is affecting your health.
Also – contact the [Consumer Affairs Center](https://www.kokusen.go.jp/e-hello/map/index.html). They’ll help you by explaining to the management company their responsibilities in handling the situation, and they also manage a low cost dispute resolution center that is much, much cheaper than courts and independent lawyers.
The evidence you compile above will GREATLY help in the dispute resolution.
call the cops.
report suspicious activity that sounds like violence.
then watch things get taken seriously.
and no, calling to report suspicious activity is not a crime. good luck.
Partly your neighbors fault but also partly leopalace’s with their origami apartments.
Have ya tried talking to the guy? I know it’s not “how you are supposed to do things here” but usually , it gets the job done. If you aren’t comfortable talking to him, maybe get one of your big guy friends (preferably with lots of tattoos) pay him a visit and have a conversation with him. I’ve found since I have large tattoos, people think I’m something I’m not. Which actually works really well in my favor 😂. Again, I’m not saying send some guy up there to threaten him, just talk normally and casually.
If you got the money just move out OP. I suggest [UR](https://www.ur-net.go.jp/chintai/sp/) if they got buildings in your town, they’re usually concrete, always accept foreigners and the down payment is usually lower than private Realtors. Where ever you go next try to get into a detached house or concrete mansion on the top floor. I’ve had multiple shit neighbors here and found the landlords to usually be totally useless so be a bit rude and direct and don’t ask but tell your company you’re moving.
Wait until he’s asleep and set off an air horn through his mail slot at random times. See how he likes it.
Seriously though, maybe not that extreme but make him understand that as long as he’s not letting you sleep, you won’t let him sleep. If he wants to be able to sleep again he can stop waking you up and you’ll do the same. That’s the only thing that works with these types and it’s not fair that they get to go through life forcing everyone around them to move out of their homes with zero consequences for themselves. He needs a taste of his own medicine or he’ll never learn.
I still remember the cockroach infested leopalace when I first moved to japan, never again! The neighbors also played guitar and invited people over until night, I was miserable.
If you don’t mind playing dirty, just bring the word “children” into it and watch how fast it gets handled.
We used to live in an apartment block and the neighbouring family were clearly composed entirely of psychopaths; while they didn’t wake us up at ungodly hours, we regularly heard them screaming blue murder at their kids.
Then one day it wasn’t just screaming; it was the sound of things smashing. My wife called the cops and mentioned that the family had kids, and that she was concerned about their wellbeing. A blatant lie, but the cops were there within the hour, and when I came back to the apartment after going to the local convenience store, there was a uniformed cop talking to a very sheepish-looking neighbour. There’s a Japanese phrase for people like this: 内弁慶. At home they’re a tyrant, but once they get face to face with an authority figure they crap their pants.
(On that topic, if you’re going to go this route, get a native speaker to call the police. The retards at the local police force actually told the neighbour that it was us who snitched on them. Fortunately, they were a classic example of the 内弁慶 I mentioned above, and they actually made a grovelling apology to us. If the cops try and get a name, tell the native speaker to refuse and just say “I am a concerned neighbour”).
Cops are useless; honestly I know people will say “oh no don’t do that” but if you have a large friend willing to get into a physical altercation (or at least the suggestion of one if he doesn’t knock it off with the bullshit), that will make him learn real quick to cut the shit, and he probably won’t even get the authorities involved because he KNOWS he’s been fucking up.
Please keep us updated how this develops.
Leave Interac. Tell them you’ll have to quit if they can’t relocate you.
Take the situation to your work: explain it and how it is affecting your life, your health and ultimately your work. Explain you now feel unsafe and threatened by this person. Ask for a new place to live, with better conditions. If they say it is not that simple, or that they can’t, then say you will think about it but that without any solutions by X date, you will likely have to stop working for them as the situation is unsustainable, and not a good look for the school either.
I will also take the fact that you feel unsafe and had to call the police (because you were scared of what was going on upstairs) to LeoPalace.
I am so sorry you’re having to deal with all this.
I spent too much time living in a shitty place with paper-thin walls and ceilings in Japan. unfortunately as much as you can try, those places will always be absolute HELL. I have no idea how people can spend their lives living in these shitholes and why a developed country would build shitty ass buildings like that in the first place. so the only real solution is to move, unfortunately. if your workplace won’t help you you gotta just do it on your own.
if you can’t or don’t want to move places though, I can give you some tips from my own experience. the first thing you need to do is change your mindest and think about how much of the noise he is making is truly “stomping”, and how much is just walking around. and I’m purely meaning this out of a mindset to help you cope with some of the noise. I know 100% if you have the mindset of “he is loud on purpose, he wants to torture me”, the noise you are hearing will be infinitely worse. but once you realize that it’s the shitty ass building quality and they’re not actually doing it on purpose, this little change in mindest will help a lot mentally. next, buy some actually FOAM earplugs off of Amazon and stop using your airpods if they’re damaging your ears. earplugs are dirt cheap and will also drown out the noise a bit better. and lastly, remind yourself that often people don’t live in these places for long periods at a time. there’s a good chance he’s only there for a few months or so. keep reminding yourself that he will probably be gone soon (even if you have no idea if that’s actually true of course).
Magic word: Lawyer.
If you are really tired and have used up all your options and feel like leaving for sure, tell to your company something along the lines of:
“I don’t know what to do, I think I might lawyer up and sue Leo palace… I am too tired, cannot stand it anymore.., I am gonna get into a big depression, even tho I told you about my situation, you did nothing to help me and take care of my health…you might be the next to get sued.”
Other option, call the labour office and explain your case. Try to place the word “lawyer” here and there.
The title gave me a chuckle.
Here’s what worked for me: writing a little note and asking them to keep it to a minimum.
Police and kanri are useless, violence and f2f confrontation will only make it worse.
Last resort, cut your losses and move out. Go for 最上階 next.
You can move out to a new apartment on your own. You don’t have to live where the school set you up. It will be a pain if they don’t support and your Japanese is bad.
This sounds like the problem my friend has. You were right to call the police. I will just say that since you mentioned you’e a woman, your CO should have put you on the top floor for safety reasons. Women in my town are not placed downstairs. Threaten to leave like the other commenters said.
I’m sorry you have to deal with this. Noisy neighbors are so annoying, especially when they are noisy due to their own lack of awareness of the people around them.
I remember vividly that our upstairs neighbor would come home after midnight and then proceeded to have a nice bath. The sound of the running water was enough to wake me. I asked the city who run the place to ask him to keep it to a shower if he comes home that late. It was so loud, as if he was taking a bath in my bedroom. I could clearly hear him farting in the tub too, while lying in my own bed. Earplugs muffled the sound a bit but not enough. It was horror. Then, when the whole apartment complex area got flooded, guess who didn’t do SHIT to clean up the surrounding area. I hated that guy.
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I hope you can get your situation resolved.
-It might not be all him, many apartments have super thing walls and they seem to be made of paper, not even wood (which would explain the vibrations).
-Either move houses or change jobs, you cant continue like this, no need to leave the country BUT even if you change houses, there is a big change of having similar neighbours somewhere else, cause this is a very common problem.
It reminds me of my crazy neighbor girl in Pangyo. Sometimes she literally went off and start screaming her lungs out in the middle of the night. Some people is really shitty i hope you solve this soon.
I’m sorry to hear about this. I’m also very sensitive to those kinds of noises. I live in a LeoPalace and I have a neighbor to the right of me who stomps around loudly. I sometimes have difficulty sleeping because of that, but I’m also not the quietest person either. I guess LeoPalaces are built quite cheaply, so if you’d like to live in peace and quiet, LeoPalace might not be your best bet.
First off, I’m sorry you’re in this situation, it sucks.
Now onto things you can do:
1. They actually make sleep headphones that are designed to well… sleep with. No more earbuds, and much more comfortable. Amazon Japan has them and they look kindof like a headband and cost less than 2,000 yen. Well worth the investment in any LeoPalace apartment if even a quarter of the complaints I’ve seen about them are true. And it is worth noting here that a large part of the problem may simply boil down to the fact that bad construction amplifies every little noise.
2. You can’t “run out” of sick leave in Japan. Just go and see a doctor and they’ll book you out on medical leave. You might be put on a reduced salary (if I recall it’s 70%?), but they can’t fire you for this.
3. You can also get sound-activated recorders. They run about 4,000+ yen, but my recommendation is not to bother. The problem here isn’t the police, and it isn’t the landlord, it’s Japan’s extremely pro-tenant laws. Once someone is in an apartment they’d actually need to do something pretty dire to get kicked out. Japan’s “public nuisance” laws are also pretty lax (as we saw recently with a certain YouTuber menace).
The bottom line here is that even if you produce evidence of him playing the electric guitar at full volume at 3am the police can only really drop by and say, “Please stop”, and if this person is the sociopath they appear to be that’s going to have zero effect.
I’m sorry to say that the only real “solution” here is probably going to be moving apartment. The medical leave from your doctor will be sufficient proof for your company, plus it’ll start costing them money when you’re not there to work (and let’s face it, if you want a company’s attention their wallet is the only thing they really pay attention to). Plus you’re up against Japan’s famous laziness and inertia. It’s dead easy for the admin staff to listen to you, nod sympathetically and say they’re sorry about the situation — it’s a lot easier than the paperwork involved in finding you a new apartment. And this is a big factor for the admin staff personally. Doing nothing is easier. As horrible as that sounds, it’s probably what’s going through their heads, they’re hoping if they wait long enough the situation will go away without them having to do any extra work.
So pop on by your local hospital, see a doctor and explain the situation and that lack of sleep has made you stressed, sick, etc. And get booked off for a couple of weeks. Grab those sleep headphones of Amazon, sleep for 2 weeks straight, and by the time you get back you’re company will hopefully be in the mood to actually move you. If not, simply repeat until they realise that the inconvenience of lining you up a new apartment is less than the inconvenience and cost of your repeated absences.
I’m surprised nobody suggested the loop recording function of action cams for gathering evidence.
A loop feature basically records in succeeding chapters (x minutes, x minutes, x minutes, x minutes) > once the 5th chapter starts to record, the first chapter is automatically deleted to make space on the memory card to endlessly record.
If you don’t already have a GoPro, you can buy one from the website and gather evidence. So long as you return the camera within 30 days since the arrival of the camera, you can get your money back.
If your job, the police, property management doesn’t do anything about it, stepping, stomping, dropping object noises aren’t really illegal so nothing else can be done.
Your only other option is to annoy the ever living crap out of your neighbor, hopefully gather evidence of your neighbor saying or doing something threatening or violent, and call the police to remove them.
Tough situation, but moving forward always remember, less neighbors less problems. I won’t even consider a place with an upstairs neighbor and corner units are a massive plus. I know you didn’t pick this place but wooden apartments are the most noisy places and always house the most psychotic and noise sensitive individuals who will ruin your life at the slightest perceived disrespect. Like others said noise cancelling headphones, like the massive shooting range ones are great and pretty cheap. Also, using them while you sleep will prevent wrinkles caused by rolling into your pillow if that helps at all. Good luck!
Definitely get it on video, it sounds like it’s happening frequently enough that you would be able to get video evidence. Call leopalace every time it happens and tell’em you’ll stop when the noise stops.
He sounds like a piece of work, don’t let this be passively and keep reporting.
NOT TRYING TO BLAME VICTIM. 4years ago, my neighbor came at my house at 10pm and suddenly scolded me in broken english(he from ghana).2 days after that he knocking my door while screaming my name at 12am. He even try to breaking into my house. I called police at that time and the police try to talk with him but they also cannot understand what he said. He said something about noise, bring friends at home(i never bring friend at home) and he cannot sleep at night. After he knew i called the police, he also called the police as revenge. At last, I ran away to my friend’s house for a week and he called the police during that time. I think he got trouble with police and suddenly came to me asking apologies. BUT, he kept reading loudly at 3am and during weekend, he put some music loudly on computer. He tortured my mental for half year. I cry at my friend’s house because finally u can sleep well there.
I think u need to collect evidence because the police do something about it.
please get a white noise machine, it’s a must have. or you can search a very monotonous sleeping audio track.
also, there is a always piss disc as revenge…….. . . . .. ..
Ya some people get angrier and they do it more often and it’s like… you want to get thrown out!?!
I wish I could help besides looking intimidating to scare them into submission haha. I do have an empty place for a few days while I travel north of you really need a good nights sleep! Just DM if you’re desperate for sleeeeeeep!
Imo grab him by the collar one day and threaten him/shake him good. I feel he will stop. It’s obvious he’s doing it on purpose. Ah nvm I reread your post I recommend you defecate on his doorstep