The end of a nightmare. In Kyoto, Japan, police arrested a man accused of tormenting his neighborhood for over seven years, playing his radio and electric guitar at unbearable volumes and depriving residents of sleep. According to police findings, 61-year-old Kazunori Yokoi would have tormented three neighbors, aged between 60 and 80, by making deafening sounds at any time of day or night in the period from June 2019 to last July.
Troubled neighbors
Due to the continuous noise, the victims showed depression and serious disorders related to the lack of rest. Furthermore, between April 2025 and July this year, noise pollution caused a woman in the area to develop tinnitus, a condition that indicates damage to the hearing system. The investigators ascertained that the radio remained in operation for the entire day, while the guitar was played from dawn until late afternoon. The technicians’ measurements revealed peaks between 80 and 90 decibels, an intensity that the municipal administration compares to the noise heard inside a moving train. Inside the house, the police seized 76 musical items, including amplifiers and guitars.
Seven nightmare years
The first reports from the inhabitants of the neighborhood had already been submitted in January 2017, and since then the authorities had repeatedly warned the person responsible. Now exhausted by the situation, between June and July this year four residents, who were diagnosed with insomnia and other pathologies, decided to file a formal complaint. One of the affected neighbors, a man in his sixties, told journalists that he suffered from a constant ringing in his ears, describing the daily and uninterrupted overlapping of noises that continued even during the hours of the night as unbearable.