Learn about phone booths used to call dead people in Japan

In 2011, an earthquake and tsunami hit Japan. Nearly 16,000 people were killed and until today communities across Japan have not recovered.

But a Japanese coastal town has devised an extremely unique way to deal with the pain after the disaster. They set up a white phone booth to call relatives who were killed in the disaster. The phone with a phone that is not connected to this telecommunications network immediately became a destination for many Japanese people suffering from the loss of loved ones. It is located on a hill in Otsuchi, overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Phone booth is located on a hill in Otsuchi, overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Otsuchi is one of the towns that suffered greatly after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The entire area was devastated by disaster in 30 minutes, 10% of the town's population was killed.

A year before the disaster, Itaru Sasaki set up a special phone booth in his garden to overcome the pain after his cousin died."Because what I want to share with him cannot be transferred to the regular phone system , " Sasaki said. " So I thought of a way to translate words through the winds."

Three years after the disaster, 10,000 people came to the phone.

After the disaster, Sasaki's phone booth became a special place. Three years after the disaster, 10,000 people came to the phone. Some come here to call for special phone calls. But those who regularly visit use this phone booth to contact their deceased relatives and record the message in a notebook.

From Tokyo you can reach Otsuchi by taking a high-speed train within two hours or seven hours by bus.