What is the red vest?
Akai chanchanko is one of the school ghost stories told in elementary schools all over Japan. When you are in the school toilet after school or at night, a voice comes from nowhere: “Shall I put a red chanchanko (padded vest) on you?” If, creeped out, you answer something like “Go ahead and try,” a blade falls from the ceiling or your throat is cut, and you are found with your back soaked red with blood, as if wearing a red vest.
Links to Aka Manto and red paper, blue paper
Similar stories in which a red thing is offered in the toilet include Aka Manto, who asks “Do you want a red cape?”, and Red Paper, Blue Paper, which asks “Red paper or blue paper?” These are thought to be the same type of ghost story, changing little by little across regions and eras. Another famous school toilet ghost story is Hanako-san of the toilet.
Why so many toilet ghost stories?
School toilets are dim places where you are easily alone. In the past they were often at the far edge of the school building, frightening places for children. Anxiety about such places is thought to have produced ghost stories of the type “answer the question and something terrible happens.” It is also typical of school ghost stories that a way to survive, such as answering “No thanks” or running away in silence, is told along with them.
