In a horrifying, almost impossible collision, a pedestrian became the victim of another person’s plunge from a Japanese apartment building

A 23-year-old woman walking through a busy Japanese city was killed in one of the most bizarre and horrifying accidents imaginable: a man fell from a 12-story building and landed directly on top of her.

The falling man survived the initial impact.

Houra Inaba was walking along a sidewalk in Nagoya at approximately 1 a.m. when 29-year-old Shinsei Taguchi suddenly plunged from the building above.

Inaba wasn’t standing beneath scaffolding, working at a construction site or knowingly entering a dangerous area. She was simply walking down the street with a friend when a human being came hurtling out of the darkness overhead.

Her friend witnessed the terrifying collision and immediately called emergency services.

Paramedics rushed both Inaba and Taguchi to a hospital. Despite doctors’ efforts, Inaba was pronounced dead at approximately 5:30 a.m. Local reports listed her cause of death as hemorrhagic shock.

Taguchi was reportedly unconscious and in critical condition. While he survived the fall and collision long enough to reach the hospital, his ultimate prognosis was not immediately known.

Police have not determined whether Taguchi deliberately jumped, accidentally fell or was involved in some other incident. Authorities have also not publicly confirmed precisely where in the building his fall began.

Officers cordoned off the surrounding area while investigators examined the scene.

The neighborhood is reportedly packed with apartment buildings, offices, stores and entertainment businesses. At 1 a.m., it was still active enough that Inaba and her friend were walking through it when the tragedy occurred.

The Aichi Prefectural Police Headquarters is investigating.

As statistically improbable as the incident sounds, it is not without precedent in Japan.

In 2024, a high-school student reportedly jumped from the 12th-floor deck of the NEWoMan Yokohama shopping complex, which is connected directly to Yokohama Station. The teenager struck a 32-year-old woman who was walking below with friends.

Both the teenager and the pedestrian later died at a hospital.

In the Nagoya case, however, the man survived the initial collision while the completely unsuspecting woman beneath him did not.

The circumstances transform the story from a fall into a nightmare of almost incomprehensible timing. A difference of one second—or a single step in either direction—might have allowed Inaba to continue walking home without ever knowing what had happened behind her.

Instead, she was killed by a stranger falling out of the sky.

Police have not announced any criminal charges, and the investigation into how and why Taguchi fell remains ongoing.