Where does the movie "The Ring"'s story originate?

Question

MORE DETAIL:
I know the american "the ring" came from the japanese version ringu
I know the japanese version Ringu came from a less popular japanese movie original called "ranga" (which means spiral, loop [if i remember the work correctly])
The movie ranga came from a book called ranga, or ringu by a japanese author
But where did the sotryline come in. Is it true that the storyline was based off of suspicious phenomenon in Japan? Or is it all a bunch of bahooka? I've heard that in the late 80's early 90's weird sutff like this was happening but the mystery was never solved and the strangeness just died out. Well? I hope to find answers.

Answer 1

http://www.theringworld.com/fact.php

According to this, several characters from
the book/movie were somewhat based on
real people and events. Be warned: It's not
a happy story.