Just want somewhere to rant and share about this. Let me entertain you guys’ mornings haha.
After seeing all the posts here about other people’s crazy neighbors and how to deal with them, I now got my own as well!
For context, I have lived in Japan since 2010, been living in many prefectures and have moved many times. From my experience here living in an apartment, I have always been very mindful of my next door or downstairs neighbor, and never ever received any noise complaints.
Fast forward to now, I have been living in my current apartment for about 1.5 years now, and everything has been great! However, recently my downstairs neighbor (a family with a small kid) moved out and the tenant is now replaced with this around 40-year-old Japanese guy who lives alone with his dog. 3 weeks ago, he came knocking my door to greet and talked about his dog not having the best eyesights. Cool, I yoroshiku’d him and that was that.
Then a week later, he came knocking on my door again, this time saying that our neighbor is loud (the apartment is next to a detached house that normally the owner will be hammering on something, probably building something). I chatted a bit with him, and that was fine and good. Then the week after that (aka last week), he came again saying I was being noisy this time, and my footsteps were very loud. Funny thing is I work at home, and been sitting on my work chair the whole day, but anyway, I just apologized and that was that. Afterward I went to my landlord who I know very well and have good relationship with. They said they know it wasn’t me being loud, and said this guy is their first ever of “this type of tenant”, and apologized to me.
Then last night at 9pm, he came knocking again, this time with the landlord, and I was like “what is it this time?”. The landlord was basically there to be a middle man, trying to de-fuel any anger from me or him. The guy accused me of jumping around and smashing my apartment floor at “4-5AM in the morning”. I was like “wtf, I normally wake up at 6-7am. That was definitely not me”, but the guy kept saying that I didn’t have “ishiki” of myself being loud, totally boggled my freaking mind. The landlord looked at me, signaling that I should just go with the flow and apologize and saying I will try to be quiet from now. Afterward I called my landlord about this incident, in which they apologized to me that I had to deal with this.
Anyway, what is my solution for this going forward? I am getting the heck out of here ASAP!! From what I have seen other posts about this kind of neighbors, it is a matter of time before he actually calls a cop on me for being noisy or some shit. I started actively looking for a new place to live now from last night. But, anyway, I don’t have anywhere else to vent this out, so I just wanted to share here. Thanks for listening/reading.
**TLDR:** Finally got a crazy neighbor after living in Japan for 13 year. I am moving out of this place ASAP!
33 comments
Make your own police report about the harassment asap so it’s on file if/when he calls the police on you.
Not sure it’s a good option or not, but I wouldn’t be answering the door for him anymore.
Staple a slice of pizza to a pizza flyer and put it in his letterbox
Never been in this type of situation, but your landlord seems to understand the situation, which is great.
I won’t say he is “on your side” as his goal is just to collect money end of the month while being left in peace. But obviously, with this tenant, it won’t happen even if you move.
This mean that you have a common ground with the landlord. A good tenant like you is hard to find, finding a new one is painful and he might find another nutcase, and if not, the new tenant my leave too because of this bad tenant.
If you can communicate well with him, I would invite him for talking about this matter and where are you common interests in this affair.
As landlord, he may have limited power (because of regulations protecting tenants), but you are another tenant, assuming you are one which doesn’t make problems and pay on time so together you may find a solution.
Oh the infamous middle age Japanese man.
Good luck. There is no placating him. Probably should do all you can to protect yourself legally or physically
I’d probably pick up a Wyze camera and SD card from Amazon JP, and set it up to record inside my apartment.
The next time he complains, I’ll first ask him for the date and time of the noise (and note it down), and if he has a recording of it… If he doesn’t, I’ll just say he must have imagined it. To please try to get a recording in future. And, to check (and archive) the camera footage of that time (without sharing it with him).
I’d also try to ask the landlord to keep me appraised of the dates/times of future complaints. I won’t let the landlord know about the camera at this time, but to keep a record and to archive footage showing it wasn’t me.
Once he does have a recording, and the (alleged) date and time, I’ll show from my camera footage that it wasn’t me, and also possibly show the footage from all the past complaints too, and to request he stop bothering me about it since it’s clearly not me.
Seeing posts like this makes me feel grateful that my colleague lives in the apartment below mine, not some crazy j-person.
Why do you let yourself be bullied by this guy? Stand up for yourself. It’s expensive and a hassle to move. Don’t be a doormat. Call the police on him first for harassing you. Your landlord seems to be on your side anyways so they would back you up.
Why do you apologise? Just say the truth it’s not you and don’t answer the door when he comes.
Start knocking on his door accusing him of being noisy. Gaslight him into believing he’s the one being loud 🙂
pay back time. 2 can play that game. complain about him listening to loud music, call the police about him being noisy. make a bunch of lies like a mad man
Get an old phone or device. Set it to record sound levels.
Next time he brings the heat show the evidence and demand dogeza satisfaction.
Youve been there longer and never had complaints. Get the landlord on your side and file a complaint. Dont let this idiot bully you out.
Install a camera over your door and set it to motion activate. Every time you hear knocking just check who it is. If it’s the neighbour then just ignore it. Keep the video clips in case the police come by (but feel free to ignore them too if the neighbour is with them- there’s nothing they can do about it and they aren’t going to knock your door in). The videos are your proof of a pattern of harassment in case this guy is planning on escalating.
But I think that’ll be unnecessary. Eventually he’ll get tired of coming up, and finding you “not in”.
I strongly suspect that this old guy is just lonely and craves attention. He doesn’t care what type of attention, as long as it is attention. Escalating this is just giving him what he wants and will encourage the behaviour. Just ignore him and he’ll go away and harass someone else.
It’s kindof sad and pathetic, and try to bear that in mind. He’s a sad, lonely old man. You seem to be taking this well, and laughing is a good reaction.
Start complaining that he is watching hentai too loudly
>what is my solution for this going forward? I am getting the heck out of here ASAP!!
All right. Thread over, I guess.
Man oh man, you could encounter all sorts of things in Tokyo. I once remember walking down at the street of Ueno at 4AM (this was back in 2018) and saw a Japanese dude walked funny. He waddled and yep you guessed it, with his eyes still closed he keep pulling out his peen to pee while walking. Never before have i took a left turn so fast even when it resulted in me taking a 5 mins detour lol.
Got this too, not a noise complaint for 3.5 years of living in the same apartment, then 3 complaints in 2 weeks saying I “walk too loud, so I need to buy slippers or something” from a brand new downstairs tenant. Luckily for me I was moving out within two weeks anyway 😅
Maybe he’s lonely and tried to make a friend with you and when he didn’t work he decided to go for negative attention 🤔 better than no attention
I swear I’ve seen this exact post on another sub by a different person. The same thing OP working from home, mentioning hammering, an old man easily aggravated man and a detached house.
I wonder if you’re dealing with that same psycho old guy
If its me, I would just move out. Not worth all those hassle plus there are some screwed folks out there whou would really do unimaginable things. Ive seen those far too often at Japanese news.
That guy might be too sensitive to noises and is dowright harassing you. For your peace of mind and safety, move out.
Dude. You didn’t read those topics carefully. YOU need to call police now. Don’t wait for him. Make him suffer! Even if you moving out.
Stop answering the door.
Landlord should get rid of that tenant and stop forcing you to apologise when you don’t need to. He’s going to lose you as a tenant and possibly others as well?
Or would that be unreasonable and non-japanese thing to do?
I had a downstairs neighbor that called the police on me 3 times. I bought a carpet, big fat slippers and exclusively wore headphones at home. It didn’t make any difference. The landlord finally told her to stop calling the police or move out. She moved out.
Apologize and show that you are trying to keep the peace. When your landlord gets the idea that you are planning to move out and the troublesome tenant is sticking around, then he might push him out or just tell him to cut it out.
Serious question: do you wear slippers? They’re the difference between “the guy can hear you walking and finds that various levels of annoying” and “guy doesn’t even know you’re here”
I do think that the guy sounds way out of line and might be attributing stuff to you that isn’t you, but it might be an olive branch! At least the guy is talking to you.
My upstairs neighbors who were lovely moved out recently and now I’m terrified heh.
get yourself some really cheap videocameras and record your bedroom/office/whatever areas you want, so that when they inevitably contact the police you can just show them that and reverse a harassment claim onto him. if you like where you live and are willing to fight for it then thats what I would do.
Out-gaslight him. Knock on his door and angrily demand to know why he was dancing around your apartment dressed as a pink giraffe last night.
Or or or, bear with me here, do the exact same thing to him, accuse him of something like poking the ceiling at 2:35 AM every day.
Japan has a lot of hidden mental illness as people are discouraged from rocking the boat of the corporate fiefdom. It’s the greater public who have to bear the cost in the form of crazy neighbours of which I think almost everybody has had a few. With luck, he’ll fixate on something else and the complaints will just dry up as he becomes accustomed to your presence. People with neurosis seek drama to give themselves meaning in their lives. Especially if they don;t have anybody.
call me a fucking cunt, but showing your neighbour’s you are a jolly good neighbour is weak move when you are renting. Demand evidence, be firm when you’re confident that you were not the one who is causing all the noise’s in the building.
When we moved into my new apartment the neighbours constantly complained to the real state agency and they relentlessly sent us a text message warning that there has been a noise complaint but it was not us. After 100th time i threatened to call police on whoever was complaining and demanded an evidence in return. They bottled. My take on the whole thing was when the room stays empty some cunts with time on their hands wants to keep it empty and deliberately make it harder for the new tenants.
I know that in OP’s case the OP was the original tenant in the building, but 40yo without a family with a dog? Cmon, the cunt wants an interaction with other human beings. Tell the miserable cunt to fuck off and the next time he makes a scene threaten to call the cops on him with your journal on what happened since he moved in. Dont fucking move because of this type of cunt. Stand your groung, mean mug him. Whatever you have to do.
start making actual noise, complain to the landlord about downstairs neighbor