ZZ Stop: Japanese man arrested for years of guitar noise

An overly enthusiastic Japanese musician has been arrested after allegedly giving his elderly neighbours insomnia for more than seven years with his loud guitar playing, police said on Tuesday.

Kyoto resident Kazunori Yokoi, 61, has allegedly been rocking out on his dozens of guitars and playing his radio at loud volume day and night since 2019, a local police officer told AFP, declining to be named.

This caused three neighbours in their 60s to their 80s to suffer from sleep deprivation and depression, while a fourth developed a constant ringing in the ears known as tinnitus.

A string of official warnings failed to change his behaviour, but the four neighbours finally gave police sufficient grounds to arrest him on assault charges, the official said.

Police seized over 40 guitars -- many electric -- from Yokoi's residence, along with CD and radio cassette players and amplifiers.

Investigators measured noise levels of over 80 decibels in the neighbourhood, which the city says is roughly as loud as being inside a moving train.

"It was awful because all kinds of sounds were jumbled together all day," Kyodo News quoted one long-suffering neighbour in his 60s as saying.

AFP

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