Japanese urban legends

Urban legends in the former category rarely include the folklore yōkai, instead of being primarily based on contemporary examples of yūrei (Japanese ghosts).

It has been alleged that in the aftermath of the fire, department store management ordered saleswomen to wear panties or other underwear with their kimono, and the trend spread.

According to Inoue, most people were saved by firefighters, and the story of women who preferred to die with their modesty intact was fabricated for Westerners.

Moreover, the Japanese generally believed that the Shirokiya Department Store fire was a catalyst for changing fashion customs, specifically the trend toward wearing Western-style panties.

[3] It was rumored that the Sony Corporation installed a device in all of its electronic products that caused them to fail soon after their warranties expired, an illegal form of planned obsolescence.

[8] Picking a colour which has not been offered leads to the individual being dragged to an underworld or hell, and in some accounts, choosing "yellow" results in the person's head being pushed into the toilet.

[12][13] Allegedly, viewers began to file complaints with television stations and with Kleenex's corporate headquarters because they found the commercial unnerving, and some supposedly claimed that the song sounded like a German curse, despite the lyrics being in English.

[13] The Curse of the Colonel (カーネルサンダースの呪い, Kāneru Sandāsu no Noroi) is supposedly suffered by the Hanshin Tigers baseball team and cited as the cause of their poor performance in the Japan Championship Series.

In 1985, fans of the Hanshin Tigers celebrated their team's first and only victory of the series and, in their excitement, threw a statue of Colonel Sanders (the founder and mascot of KFC) into the Dōtonbori River.

[14] A Japanese urban legend dating back to the Taishō period, that saw a significant resurgence after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, is a trend of taxi drivers who say that they picked up a passenger, often drenched or cold, who then disappears before reaching their destination, often leaving behind evidence of their presence such as a puddle, a glove, or occasionally a fare.

Yuka Kudo at Tokyo Gakugei University interviewed over 100 taxi drivers in an effort to study the phenomenon, but many refused to answer.

Ishinomaki psychiatrist Keizo Hara and others have suggested that the ghost passengers are grief hallucinations or a sign of collective post-traumatic stress disorder.

Supposedly the "Cow Head" story is so horrifying that people who read or hear it are overcome with fear so great that they tremble violently for days on end until they die.

[27] They are rumored to be able to run along highways at extremely high speeds, which allows them to overtake cars and then look back at drivers with their human faces.

[27] The concept of dogs with human faces dates back to at least as early as 1810, when a "human-faced puppy" was reportedly exhibited at a misemono.

A dog with a human face appears in the 1978 American film Invasion of the Body Snatchers,[30] and jinmenken have been featured in the anime and video game franchise Yo-kai Watch.

The trip was meant to be her typical commute to work on the Enshū Railway Line, but the train was travelling in an unknown direction, and its driver and conductor were completely unreachable, making it impossible for Hasumi to figure out where she was headed.

She soon reached the end of the tunnel and was welcomed by a friendly man who offered a ride to safety – unusual for this hour and also at such a location.

However, the train continued along the line into a remote area of the Japanese Alps, and the man became silent and wouldn't acknowledge Hasumi's presence.

She is said to partially cover her face with a mask or object and reportedly carries a sharp tool of some kind, such as a knife or a large pair of scissors.

[36] Attempting to flee Kuchisake-onna will also result in death; to survive an encounter with her, it is said that individuals may answer her question with a response that confuses her, describing her appearance as "average", distracting her with money or hard candy (specifically the traditional Japanese variety bekko ame), or saying the word "pomade" three times.

[36][35] Kunekune (くねくね, "Wriggling body") is an urban legend which concerns distant apparitions seen on widely extended rice or barley fields on hot summer days.

A kunekune refers to an indiscernible white object, similar in appearance to a tall, slender strip of paper or a textile sheet, that shimmers and wiggles as if moved by wind, even on windless days.

[42] After being discovered by a woman who threw it aside in disgust, the doll cursed her, causing her to lose her sanity and eventually die in a mental hospital.

[6] Individuals may escape Kashima by replying that her legs are on the Meishin Expressway,[6][46] or by answering her question with the phrase "kamen shinin ma", which translates to "mask death demon".