Previously: The Faceless People Of Monroe, CT.
Type: UCD (Unusual Communication Device).
Period/location of origin: Mid-late 20th century, Hachioji, Japan. The precise date of origin is unknown, although for reasons discussed in Additional Notes, subject — the telephone booth at Hachioji Cemetery (八王子霊園の電話ボックス), sometimes referred to specifically as the Hachioji Cemetery Haunted Phone Booth — could not have existed before the late 1960s or early 1970s.
Appearance: Subject appears to be a glass-walled telephone booth housing a green public telephone located at the east gate of Hachioji Cemetery in Hachioji City, Japan.
It does not look markedly different from any of the other glass-walled telephone booths housing green public telephones scattered throughout Japan. But do not be mistaken: It is not the same as any of those other telephone booths.
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There is a reason, after all, it is called the Hachioji Cemetery Haunted Phone Booth.
Modus operandi: Details are somewhat scant when it comes to subject’s modus operandi — the whys and wherefores are not apparent — but the outline of subject’s activities is nonetheless relatively clear.
Targets are self-selecting; either they venture out to subject intentionally to witness its curiosities, or they find themselves in need of a phone at a certain hour when subject is the only one nearby and make the choice to utilize it.
Should a target enter the Hachioji Cemetery haunted phone booth at night and inspect the walls from inside the booth, target may see the specter of a woman appear as a reflection in the glass — that is, she does not appear to be standing outside the telephone booth, but rather, that she is inside the telephone booth, standing directly behind target.
Should a target enter the Hachioji Cemetery haunted phone booth at night, pick up the receiver, and hold it to their ear, target may hear a woman’s anguished voice on the other end — even if the target has not dialed an actual number.
Should a target enter the Hachioji Cemetery haunted phone booth at night, pick up the receiver, and dial their own mobile phone number from the booth’s green phone, target may, after hanging up both lines, receive an additional call on their mobile phone. The number on the display will read only, “UNKNOWN.” It is not recommended that targets answer this call.
Should a target enter the Hachioji Cemetery haunted phone booth at night, and then exit the telephone booth, target may hear a woman calling out to them as they go — or, according to some reports, a woman screaming. Targets should not turn around before or during their exiting of the booth. Targets should, in fact, not turn around at all — not even after exiting the booth. Once target has exited the booth, target would best be served be departing the premises immediately. Do not turn around. Do not look back. Just go.
Should a target simply be standing somewhere in the vicinity of the Hachioji Cemetery haunted phone booth at night, target may be approached by what appears to be a small child. The child may ask the target to come with her, and hold out her hand. Should target take the child’s hand and follow, target will be led to the telephone booth. A woman will appear to be inside the telephone booth. Should target then look down at their hand — the hand which had hitherto been held by the small child — target will find their hand to be empty; should they then look toward the both, target will see the child now inside the booth with the woman. Target will not witness the child drop their hand or enter the phone booth; the child will just… appear to be as such. It is not known what else may occur following this development.
Some accounts report the presence of an animal — potentially a corporeally challenged one — near the telephone both, although no further details are typically furnished by these accounts. It is not known what kind of animal may or may not be present, what the animal does when it appears, or what action is necessary for targets to perform in order to encourage the animal to appear in the first place.
Some reports state that visits to subject must occur specifically at either midnight or at two o’clock in the morning, if targets are to experience any of the above activities. However, other reports note only that the activities occur if subject is visited at night more generally. Targets actively seeking to experience subject’s activities may, if the desired result is not achieved visiting at one time, attempt to visit again at one or both of the other times instead.
Containment: Subject is harmless as long as it is visited during the day. If targets wish to avoid subject’s unusual activities, simply staying away from it after night has fallen will accomplish this goal.
Additional notes: Since the early 1950s, public telephones in Japan have been operated by the telecoms company Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, or NTT. Further, NTT has two regional branches, NTT East and NTT West. Hachioji, as a part of Tokyo Prefecture, falls under the purview of NTT East; as such, the operation of its public telephones, including the Hachioji Cemetery haunted telephone booth, is handled by NTT East.
Regarding subject’s date of origin:
The pre-fabricated, four-sided glass telephone booth was first introduced in Japan in 1964. During the Tokyo Olympics that year, several of these phone booths were placed at a handful of sites associated with the Games. Just a few years later, in 1969, this variety of phone booth was adopted nationwide. Given that accounts of subject all appear to be associated with a four-sided glass telephone booth, it is unlikely that subject would have originated prior to 1969.
Hachioji Cemetery (東京都立八王子霊園) originally opened on April 1, 1971. Given that all accounts of subject specifically mention the cemetery as a touchstone, it is unlikely that subject would have originated prior to 1971.
Public telephones in Japan are color-coded, with current models falling under three colors: Green, grey, and pink. Green public telephones are by far the most common, and can typically be used either with coins or with magnetic telephone cards. This is the variety of telephone present within the Hachioji Cemetery telephone booth.
The telephone installed in the Hachioji Cemetery telephone booth looks specifically to be an MC model phone — possibly an MC-4PN, although the small metal plate affixed to the side of the phone that would contain this information is unfortunately not clearly visible enough in any video footage or photographs this researcher has found to see precisely what the model number is. Should any fellow researchers on the ground in or near Hachioji be in possession of this information, tips are welcome.
In any event, the MC line of public telephones was first put into service in the early 1980s. As such, it is perhaps slightly less likely subject would have originated prior to this decade, although it is possible that an earlier model of public telephone could have existed on the site currently occupied by subject. Currently, we do not have evidence that shifts the argument either way.
It is not known whether a particular moment in subject’s history led to its alleged haunting. There do not appear to be specific stories or events associated with the telephone booth itself that would account for the specters or activities observed in and around the booth. It is possible that the alleged haunting may be related more to the cemetery than the telephone booth, simply due to the fact that it is a cemetery; however, there is not currently any evidence that would suggest anything concrete. As such, a possible connection with the cemetery itself remains conjecture only.
Please note, too, that the current booth has not always been the booth located on this site. Photographs from 2004 show subject not as it is today, but rather as an older model of booth, as evinced by its red roof. It is not known precisely when this older version of subject was installed, or when it was replaced with the current version; however, it is worth noting that it may in fact have been the booth originally installed at this location, as it is similar to the first versions of the glass-walled phone booth that launched in 1969.
Regardless, the implications here are… interesting:
It is possible that the alleged haunting is not booth-specific.
It is possible that the haunting has transferred from booth to booth.
It is possible that it doesn’t matter what kind of telephone booth is located at this site.
It is possible that it only matters that there is a telephone booth located at this site.
Interestingly, an extremely similar story has also been associated with a telephone booth located at Mizumoto Park in Katsushika Ward, some 80 kilometers (about 50 miles) away from Hachioji Cemetery. This telephone booth also reportedly puts targets in contact with the specter of a woman, although again, it is not known who she might be or what may have caused the allegedly haunting.
It is not known whether the specter and story associated with this telephone booth is merely similar to the specter and stories associated with the Hachioji Cemetery telephone booth… or whether it is the same specter.
Further research is required.
Recommendation: Subject does not appear to cause lasting harm to targets who witness its activities, and therefore may be visited relatively safely either by day or by night. Hachioji Cemetery’s address is 3 Chome-2536 Moto-Hachiōjimachi, Hachioji, Tokyo 193-0826, Japan.
However, please note that in 2021, Japan’s telecommunications ministry announced that the number of public telephones available were set to be cut by approximately 75 percent.
Up until that point, it was required by law that one public telephone be installed every 500 square meters in urban areas, and one every kilometer in less populous areas. However, with the rise in mobile phone usage came a precipitous drop in the usage of public telephones; accordingly, the plan was made to loosen those requirements to one public telephone installed every square kilometer in urban areas and one every two square kilometers in other areas.
It is unlikely that public telephones will vanish completely from the streets of Japan anytime soon, as they often play an important rule during emergencies or disaster situations. However, the reduction in number of public telephones does mean that all of the ones currently installed may not be there forever…
…including subject.
As such, if you wish to see the allegedly haunted Hachioji Cemetery telephone booth, you may want to think about making the pilgrimage sooner, rather than later.
If you wait too long, there’s no guarantee it will still be there by the time you go.
Resources:
Hachioji Cemetery on Google Maps.
Telephone Booth at Hachioji Cemetery at Ghostmap. (In Japanese.)
A Map Of Haunted Spots In Hachioji. (In Japanese.)
Hachioji Cemetery at Kowabana.jp. (In Japanese.)
Where Is The Telephone Booth In Hachioji Cemetery? (In Japanese.)
Telephone Booth At The Entrance To Hachioji Cemetery. (In Japanese.)
Hachioji Cemetery at the Tokyo Metropolitan Parks Association website. (In Japanese.)
Videos of nighttime visits to the Hachioji Cemetery haunted telephone booth:
Video of daytime visit to the Hachioji Cemetery haunted telephone booth:
Hachioji Kaidan (八王子怪談).
The anime and manga Dark Gathering, which contains a story similar to and potentially inspired by subject in its first episode/issue.
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[Photos via screenshot/Google Street View; m-louis, iMorpheus/Flickr, available under CC BY-SA 2.0 and CC BY 2.0 Creative Commons licenses.]
