Ghosts?

Here Ju-On, Ringu, and Dark Water are well known!! Everyone is scared of the ghosts the Japanese have made in film. In my dorm many people dress and act like the ghosts to scare!!

Where I live ghosts are very popular. Many people claim homes are haunted.

Japan has made many ghost stories. Are ghosts believe in there? And is it popular like where I live - people claim homes are haunted?

In movies I watch the slightest thing makes the characters believe in paranormal and that ghost are around whether good or bad ghost.

I want to know if this is just movie? Or if it is based on some actuality?

This is very interesting because where I live (Boston, MA) and in my dorm too everyone will try to scare each other by dressing up as Kayako seaki from Ju-On and acting like her. A girl down the hall has a long messy black wig and every now and then someone will borrow it. The next thing we know it's midnight and we see a black hair woman coming up the stairs making that creepy noise!

I'm not sure which country you are from, but it seems in America that the belief in ghosts is split 50/50 - some people strongly believe in ghosts while others strongly don't.

In my area though many many MANY people do. Maybe it's because of the location? There are a lot of old buildings here that are very rickety and make lots of noises. So it's only natural that the stories of these buildings keep getting more and more creative. Like my building on Beacon Street is one of the oldest and there are plenty of ghost stories surrounding it.

I've always wondered the same thing about Japan because they tend to crank out tons of horror movies surrounding ghosts. It's similar to how America cranks out tons of slasher flicks, that's sort of what we're known for. Here some of these horror movies are LOOSELY based on true events (for example the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Zodiac, etc).

I wonder if Japan's movie are based on facts - even slightly - and if the belief in ghosts is big there. So I look forward to other's responses! =)

As far as I know, all countries have their fair share of ghost believers and non-believers. It's the same here in Japan. I'm sure you've noticed that in the Japanese movies as well, there is a fair share of characters who don't try to believe the ghost stories told by the other characters.

I think Japanese ghosts are much scarier than American ghosts owing to a much older culture. When I was growing up, we had a summer home in the country that was very near a couple of feudal castles and many of the older residents had stories handed down through the ages about various ghosts that haunted the area. The scary thing was that all of the stories told by different people were very similar. At night, I would often have a hard time sleeping, and often woke to nightmares. At times, I could not tell if they were really nightmares or hauntings... Nothing is as creepy as an old, old Japanese house at night.