Those darn sexagenarians with their loud rock music. A lot of people have music in their hearts, and that’s great, because the rest of us can’t hear it deep inside there without some sort of EKG machi

Those darn sexagenarians with their loud rock music.

A lot of people have music in their hearts, and that’s great, because the rest of us can’t hear it deep inside there without some sort of EKG machine, or a stethoscope at the very least.

It’s when that music starts to leak out into the personal space of others that we have to tread carefully. It’s not that sharing the gift of music is bad, but we do have to respect the tastes of the individual.

▼ For example, my roommate in university was rather fond of this song and would play it at full volume at random moments throughout the day. Nothing against the artist — it’s just that you kind of need to be in the right frame of mind for something like this.

It’s a lesson one 61-year-old man in Kyoto seems to have a hard time understanding. He is currently under arrest for generating non-stop noise at high volumes for at least seven years straight and causing a range of physical and mental ailments to his neighbors.

According to Kyoto Prefectural Police, the suspect both played the radio at a high volume, even while not at home, and also played his own electric guitar at all hours of the day. Police say that noise complaints had been received since 2017, but it wasn’t until 2019 that reports of it impairing people’s well-being were made.

One neighbor in their 80s and another 67-year-old neighbor both reported suffering from depression and insomnia, while a 76-year-old living nearby complained of sleeping disorders, all between 2019 and July of this month. Another neighbor developed tinnitus last April.

Police had repeatedly issued warnings to the man, and each time the noise would subside for a while, only to eventually resume. Given the clear detriment to people’s health it was causing and the fact that the man was not getting the message, police finally took action and arrested him.

In doing so, they also raided his home, seizing 47 guitars, one mandolin, 13 amps, four radio cassette players, one speaker, and one CD player. A further investigation into his wife’s home led to the confiscation of a further two guitars, six amps, and one radio cassette player. I’m no criminologist, but the fact that the wife has a separate home will likely make her a key witness in this investigation.

▼ Given his age, it’s 50-50 whether he was using that mandolin for some “Losing My Religion” or Led Zeppelin… possibly both.

Online comments seemed to largely agree this man was a menace to society, and the only injustice was that it took this long for him to get arrested.

“What a monster. I hope more people like him get arrested.” “That was allowed to go on for nine years. Even if he gets sued, I don’t think justice will be served.” “They should have arrested him a long time ago.” “We need stricter penalties for this so faster arrests become the norm. Why wait until people suffer?” “There needs to be harsher punishments. His neighbors have a right to life too.” “I wouldn’t have been surprised if his house was set on fire for that.” “It’s messed up that seven years of suffering took place before something was done.” “It seems like the police are partly responsible for not acting sooner.” “The guy probably took a sarcastic ‘you’re really good at guitar’ literally.”

I admit, I was sort of wondering the same thing as that last commenter. Kyoto has a very notorious way of sarcastically telling you off with a compliment. Reports never mentioned if the suspect was a native Kyoto resident, so there is a non-zero chance that he might have mistaken their backhanded compliments as actual compliments.

Even the suspect himself is denying the charges, saying that while he did play the music as loudly as claimed, he had no malicious intent in doing so. It just goes to show the importance of direct confron—POUND DOWN ON YOUR BRAIN!!!

Ugh, sorry… That still haunts me to this day.

Image: Pakutaso