Every year, millions of personal belongings are lost in Japan.
But unlike other countries, if you lose your phone or wallet in this country, it is very likely that you will recover them.
All lost items are stored in the Lost and Found Center in Lidabashi, Tokyo.
On 2019, a record number of 4, millions of lost items were delivered to this location.
Currently, the center stores more than 100,000 lost objects.
As explained Yukiko Igarashi, head of the Lost Property Center, in Tokyo, about 7,700 objects lost were delivered daily.
“Tokyo has the 20% of all items lost in Japan”, he says.
“And the item that has the highest recovery rate is the mobile phone.
“Close to 88% of lost mobile phones are returned to their owners”, he specifies.
The second most recovered item is wallets, says Igarashi. Almost the 36% of these are returned to their owners.
“Another very common thing that is lost is official documents,” he says, “such as driver’s licenses, health insurance cards, credit cards or store discount cards.”
Most often lost items they are returned the same day they are lost.
But some are not so lucky and rarely return to their owners.
“The lowest recovery rate is for umbrellas, with less than 1%. You can easily replace a cheap plastic umbrella, so people often don’t look for them”, says Igarashi.
Ease of report
But what is the secret to the success of Japan’s lost property system?
“Basically, all lost items are delivered to the ‘Koban’, or police station”, says the head of the Lost Property Center.
In the Sukiyabashi Koban, Officer Wada says, “The duties of police officers in the Koban include patrolling the area, accepting lost property, and filing lost property reports.”
“Also take care of people who are lost or drunk, listen to citizens about issues that could cause problems, and deal with traffic accidents or criminals,” he adds.
All lost items are turned in to the ‘ Koban’, or police station.
Koban officers show a different image than policemen elsewhere.
The community-based approach and the ubiquity of the Koban make it easy to report a lost item.
“On average, we receive seven lost items a day at this Sukiyabashi Koban,” says Wada .
Claims
But what happens if no one claims the lost items?
“If the owner does not appear for a certain time , the item will be transferred to the Center [de Objetos Perdidos]”, explains Yukiko Igarashi.
And if no one picks up the item at the center, the person who returned it can claim it after three months.
If they prefer not to keep the item, ownership will be transferred to the city, which may auction it off.
“The most memorable item I was given was an envelope with US$8 in it.800 in cash”, indicates agent Wada.
“I was surprised!” he says.
The head of the Lost and Found Center Yukiko Igarashi explains that it is not unusual to see grand it is sums of money like the one received by the police officer.
“For me the most memorable objects were a artificial tooth and crutches. I wondered how the owner could return home without them?
“There are so many rare objects that are lost!”
The efficient system facilitates the return of lost objects. But this process would not be possible without the people of Japan.
“For more than 1,000 years Japan has had a law on lost property”, explains Igarashi.
“I personally believe that Japan’s moral education has played an important role in shaping our attitude towards lost property,” he says.
Even today, children are taught to return lost objects.
“You often see children handing in lost items to the Koban with their parents,” says Igarashi, “even if it’s just a 100 yen ($0,73 dollars)”.
Professor Masahiro Tamura, d e Kyoto Sangyo University, thinks that the first time most people interact with the police in their lives is perhaps when they are going to turn in lost property to the Koban.
“This creates a close relationship between agents and ordinary citizens,” he says.
The concept Japanese of “hitono-me“, which means “eye of the society”, is an important part of the process.
“Our internal morality often helps us to modify our behavior”, says Professor Tamu ra, “but so does ´the eye of society´”.
The culture prevents people from doing wrong things, even without a police presence.
“Japanese people care a lot about how other people see their behavior, so the attitude towards lost property is linked to their image in society”, Tamura points out.
Moral discipline is maintained even when natural disasters occur.
“Often when disasters happen in Japan, crime doesn’t increase,” says Tamura. “The only exception was during the Fukushima disaster, when we had crime cases.”
“So I think the power of people’s eyes on us is much greater than the power of public authority”, he adds.
The pandemic reduced the number of lost objects in Japan. But even so, the center received 2.8 million items.
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