Old Yura Tunnel (旧由良トンネル), Wakayama Prefecture

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The Old Yura Tunnel is a former stretch of National Route 42 connecting Yura and Hidaka in central Wakayama Prefecture, superseded by a newer tunnel on the realigned modern highway.

What the tunnel actually is

The tunnel is built in mixed style — part brick-lined, part unlined bored rock. Visitors consistently describe it as unlit, with water dripping steadily and pooling on the roadway. We could not independently verify an exact construction date from primary sources.

What locals say

The most repeated story is of a “headless rider” — the ghost of a motorcycle police officer said to have died in a crash near the tunnel, riding through at night without a head. A second story describes a woman in white, and a phantom car that vanishes just before a head-on collision.

We could not verify the police-officer death or any specific traffic fatality through records available. The “officer who died on duty” motif recurs across multiple unrelated Japanese tunnel legends, suggesting a common narrative template rather than a site-specific event.

Can you visit: Yes — an accessible, driveable tunnel on a lightly used public road, though unlit and wet inside.

The “Officer Who Died on Duty” Story Template

A headless motorcycle officer, a phantom vehicle, a vanishing figure just before a collision — these motifs repeat across unrelated Japanese tunnel and highway legends far too often to trace to one real death each time. The pattern suggests a shared narrative template built around genuine anxieties about isolated, unlit roads, rather than a documented event unique to the Old Yura Tunnel.

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