Is Inunaki Village Real?

Inunaki Tunnel. Inunaki Ridge. Inunaki Village. The entire Inunaki region in Fukuoka is said to be one of the most haunted in all of Japan. A young man was murdered in Old Inunaki Tunnel. It’s said you’ll hear howling and screaming in the woods of Inunaki Ridge. And Inunaki Village, the most fearsome of all, is said to exist outside the Japanese constitution and thus doesn’t obey their laws. But there’s one big question hanging over Inunaki Village: does it even exist?

The legend of Inunaki Village goes as follows. You must take a small side road past Old Inunaki Tunnel to find the village. It’s small and easy to miss, so most people don’t ever find it. If you follow that to the entrance of the village you’ll find a sign that states, “The Japanese constitution is not in effect past here.” Past that you’ll see an old, broken-down Sedan, the remains of a couple who were unfortunate enough to enter the village and never return.

If you’re brave enough to enter yourself, it’s said the village is full of traps and the villagers themselves will attack you with hatchets and sickles. There’s no phone service either, so you’ll be completely on your own.

The village is said to have been isolated from the outside world since the Edo Period and because of that, the government treats them as a “special reservation.” If you’re foolish enough to go in there, you are entirely on your own, and no-one who has entered has ever escaped alive.

But does it really exist? There’s certainly a lot of information about a village that no-one has lived to tell the tale about, but does that mean it’s real?

A real Inunaki Village did exist from 1691 to 1889. It then merged with nearby Yoshikawa Village, which itself then merged with other areas over the years and the modern day Inunaki Village is now located in Miyawaka City. It’s a very real place, although it’s not the Inunaki Village of legend. The site of the old village is now submerged under a dam as well, so that’s not it either. Where is this legendary village that exists outside the Japanese constitution and kills all who enter? It’s not like Inunaki is a big place. If it exists, someone would have found it by now.

Rumours of Inunaki Village, as we know the legend today, likely first appeared online in 1999. An anonymous person sent a letter to NTV with the title “The Village in Japan That Isn’t Part of Japan.” It describes the legend exactly as we know it today. The writer mentions they don’t believe in ghosts, but but Inunaki Ridge is famous for them. This person had heard about a small path, easy to overlook, by the side of Old Inunaki Tunnel that gets smaller and smaller as it goes on. At the end, there’s a village that doesn’t exist on any map and there’s a sign that states, “The Japanese constitution is not in effect past here.”

The writer describes more of the village and the violent villagers and ends with a request to the TV channel to check it out as soon as possible. No proof of the Inunaki Village legend has ever been found before this particular letter, and Inunaki Ridge itself only became known as a ghost spot in the late 1980s.

These days we have satellite technology, drones, and more YouTubers and bloggers trying to hit the big time than you can poke a stick at. No-one has ever found anything even vaguely resembling the Inunaki Village of legend. Inunaki Village was once a real place, yes, but it merged with other villages over the years and no longer exists. And as for the story we know today? It’s likely nothing more than a creepypasta barely a few decades old.