KYOTO , July 25 – A man was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of blasting loud radio and guitar noise at his house in Kyoto for more than seven years, causing neighbors to suffer from insomnia and other ailments, police said.
Kazunori Yokoi allegedly exposed three residents in their 60s to 80s to radio and electric guitar playing at loud volume day and night from June 2019 to July this year and they suffered from sleep deprivation and depression.
Similar noise between April 2025 and July this year is also suspected of having caused a woman to suffer from tinnitus.
Police seized 76 items including electric guitars and amplifiers.
The radio could be heard all day while the guitar was audible from early morning until late afternoon, police said. Investigators measured noise levels of about 80 to 90 decibels in the neighborhood, which the city says is roughly as loud as being inside a moving train.
After receiving noise complaints from residents in January 2017, officers repeatedly warned Yokoi, police said. Four residents diagnosed with insomnia and other health problems filed complaints in June and July this year.
A neighbor in his 60s said he has suffered from ringing in his ears. “It was awful because all kinds of sounds were jumbled together all day,” he said.
