Frequently Asked Questions

KARASU CHANNEL is a horror site built around a “flashlight” effect — move your mouse and hidden text or faces emerge from the darkness. You can browse true horror stories, haunted locations, and our video archive from the homepage or their respective archive pages. The “SETTINGS” button in the bottom right lets you toggle effects, ambient sound, the cursor, and the display language.

Open “SETTINGS” in the bottom right and turn “GIMMICK” off. This stops the visual noise (grain), the flashlight effect, and the occasional jump-scares all at once, switching to an easier-to-read display. If you just want the cursor back to normal, turn off “CURSOR”; to mute the ambient sound, turn off “SOUND” — each toggles independently (if you use an OS-level enlarged or high-visibility cursor, turning CURSOR off will make it easier to see). You can change any of these settings at any time, even while reading an article.

Open “SETTINGS” in the bottom right and choose “日本語” — you can switch back to English from the same spot at any time.

Besides the homepage and each archive page, you can browse every page on the site from our Sitemap. Haunted locations can also be browsed together from our list by prefecture.

Yes — you’ll see the same content on a computer, phone, or tablet, and the layout adjusts automatically to fit the screen width. Some effects that respond to mouse movement may feel a little different to use on a touch device.

It’s a section gathering videos related to our true horror stories and haunted locations. You can find it from the homepage or the archive pages.

Sign up, log in, and open “Email Notifications” on your My Page, then uncheck the notifications for new stories and/or haunted locations. You can change this setting at any time.

There’s no search box permanently shown in the header right now, but you can use the search box that appears when a page can’t be found, or add “?s=keyword” to the end of the URL. To browse articles, our archive pages and Sitemap are also a good place to start.

From the homepage or “Settings,” head to our Fortune-Telling index, where tools are grouped by genre. Some ask for your birth date and name before showing a reading; others (tarot, omikuji, and the like) just need a button press. Both kinds are free and don’t require signing up.

Yes — every true horror story and haunted-location page has a “Share this” section near the bottom. LINE and X have one-tap share links, and for apps without a direct share URL, like Instagram, there’s a “Copy Link” button instead.

Yes — anyone can submit for free via the Submissions page. Every submission is reviewed by the KARASU CHANNEL team before we decide whether to publish it, so nothing appears on the site immediately after you send it.

Yes. Your name or handle is optional — if you leave it blank, we treat the submission as anonymous. Even when a name is given, we review it before publishing and withhold anything that could identify you personally.

We can’t promise a timeline, since reviewing and fact-checking submissions takes time. Some content — real crimes, war casualties, or places where people currently live, for example — falls outside what we publish under our own editorial standards, so please understand in advance that not every submission will go up.

Images can be JPEG, PNG, GIF, or WEBP (up to 15MB each), and video can be MP4, MOV, or WEBM (up to 100MB each). You can attach up to 5 files per submission (actual upload limits may also depend on our server settings).

The name and email address you enter when submitting are never shown on the public page — we keep them only for our own confirmation. However, if you submit while signed in as a member, that submission is recorded under your own account, which counts toward the submission history and badges shown on your My Page (even then, the name or email you typed into the form itself is not made public).

Please get in touch via “Work Inquiries” on our Contact page. Suzuking., who runs KARASU CHANNEL, will respond individually depending on the nature of your request — system development, on-site reporting, appearances, and so on.

We try to reply as soon as we’ve reviewed your message, but we can’t promise an exact turnaround. If you haven’t heard from us after a few days, please check your spam folder and then reach out again.

The readings on this site are lighter, selection-based versions that don’t use a photo. For a full reading based on a photo you send in, you can request one through “Request a Reading from Ms.M” on our Contact page — this is a reservation-based service.

Yes — every reading on the site is free, and you don’t need to register as a member or enter an email address. If you’d like a more detailed reading directly from Ms.M, you can also request one via our Contact page (a paid, reservation-based service — since it’s booked in advance, it may take some time before we can get back to you).

Yes — we have an English Contact page on the English site.

Suzuking., who runs KARASU CHANNEL, handles requests such as custom system development, IT consulting, SES (engineer staffing), recruiting, and web marketing, within what he can personally take on. Please start with “Work Inquiries” on our Contact page.

Please let us know via “Report a Site Issue” on our Contact page.

KARASU CHANNEL publishes this information to document these places, not to encourage visiting them. Trespassing without permission on private property or areas where entry is prohibited can lead to trouble or accidents, so please don’t do it. Even at a facility or park that is technically open to the public, treating it as a “haunted spot” to visit can alarm nearby residents or cause a nuisance through noise. Please refrain from unnecessary visits.

We always note this in each haunted-location article. Some places — a building people currently live in, or a business that’s still operating, for example — we choose not to feature at all.

Articles we judge to carry a particularly high risk — due to deterioration, the danger of collapse, and so on — display a “Danger” badge. Whether or not a badge is shown, we don’t recommend visiting any of the locations listed here.

We research and write based on sources — oral tradition, news reports, records, and the like — but a good deal of the content originates in rumor or legend. Within the text, we’re careful to distinguish established fact from our own analysis and speculation.

These mark a location that has already been demolished or a facility that has stopped operating — a separate piece of information from the “Danger” badge, which is about risk. Where this label appears, please keep in mind that conditions on the ground may have changed since the article was written.

Some of them do. Where an English version exists, a language-switch link appears within the article.

Yes — please send us the details through our Submissions page. Whether it becomes an article is still up to our own editorial judgment, so we can’t guarantee publication.

You can save articles, haunted locations and fortune-telling pages as favorites, view your comment history, receive email notifications about updates, and save your fortune-telling profile so you do not have to re-enter your birth date each time. Sign-up currently uses an email address and a password. Signing up and using these features is entirely free.

All comments go through review before they appear, so it takes a little time after you post. Depending on the content, we may also choose not to publish a comment.

You can close your account (delete it) at any time from My Page. Doing so permanently removes your account data, including favorites and email preferences, and this can’t be undone. Comments you’ve already posted, however, will remain visible.

Once you’re signed in, press the “Favorite” button on an article or haunted-location page to save it. Everything you’ve favorited appears together on your My Page, where you can also reorder it. Favorites aren’t available while signed out.

Articles and haunted-location pages each have a button to vote for the one you find scariest. No membership is needed — your vote is counted once site-wide based on information kept in your browser, and you can change it to a different article or location later (this is only a light limit to stop repeat voting from the same browser, not a strict anti-fraud measure). After voting, a link to the full ranking appears.

Use our password reset page — we’ll send a reset link to your registered email address.

Yes, any time, from your My Page.

Yes. Check “Replies to My Comments” on your My Page.

Anyone can press “like” without signing up, and the count is shown on the comment. “Dislike” works the same way to press, but we don’t display that count publicly — it’s there for our own moderation reference.

Yes — anyone can request removal from “Request Deletion” on any comment, no membership needed. This doesn’t delete it immediately; we review the request and decide whether to remove it.

Once you’re signed in, you can save your birth date, name, and blood type as a “fortune-telling profile” on your My Page — after that, the fortune-telling pages start pre-filled with it. You can clear this saved profile from My Page at any time.

Our free fortune telling is divided into eight genres: Eastern Divination, Western Astrology, Cards & Oracles, Spiritual Diagnostics, Numerology, Compatibility, Palmistry & Physiognomy, and Other. Each genre has several tools. Some ask for your birth date or name; others simply draw a card or give a result at the press of a button. The readings are supervised by Ms.M, who has studied more than 12 divination systems, including Western astrology, Four Pillars, tarot and numerology.

Fortune telling is offered for enjoyment, reflection and as a prompt for thinking things through. Results are not guaranteed. Please do not rely on them alone for important decisions about health, law, money or your career; talk to a professional or someone you trust as well.

No. All calculations happen inside your browser, and what you enter is never sent to or stored on our server; it is used only for that reading on your device. The one exception is if you sign in and choose to save it as your “fortune-telling profile”, in which case it is kept only as your own account data on our site and never shared with third parties.

It lets you save your birth date, name and blood type in advance so you do not have to enter them every time. Sign in and you can save, change or delete it from My Page. It is free.

A daily fortune from the crow that you can draw once per day. Anyone can use it. If you are signed in when you draw, a daily seal is added to your goshuin book.

Yes. When you are signed in, press the “Favourite” button on a fortune-telling page. It will be listed on My Page together with your favourite stories and haunted locations.

No. The readings are free for everyone. Signing up simply adds extras such as saving your fortune-telling profile, favourites, and the daily goshuin record for Today’s Crow Fortune.

Personal readings are by reservation (paid) through the “Fortune-telling request to Ms.M” option on the contact page. Bookings are currently full several years ahead, so we cannot offer an immediate slot. The free readings on this site remain open to everyone.

You’re welcome to reference our content within the bounds of fair-use quotation, but please don’t reproduce or copy our text or photos without permission. For details, see our Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use for Submissions & Contact.

We only use what you send us to decide on publication, write an article, or reply to you — we never provide it to third parties. See our Privacy Policy for details.

We use Google Analytics to understand how the site is used, and it collects access data via cookies. This doesn’t include information that could identify you personally, such as your name or email address. See our Privacy Policy for details.

No. All fortune-telling calculations happen entirely inside your browser and are never sent to an external server (the one exception is if you choose to save it as your “fortune-telling profile” while signed in, in which case it’s kept only as your own account data on our site and never shared with third parties).