In 2015, Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department reported that it was able to return 55,000 lost items to their owners who lived overseas. Every year, they say that the number of returned items increases by about 70 percent each year.
Regarded as the Japanese "omotenashi" culture of hospitality, most Japanese people are accustomed to immediately taking the initiative to bring a lost and found item to specially designated property boxes installed by the MPD. According to News On Japan, since tourism to Japan has steadily been increasing, so has the number of returned items. Due to their strict culture of properly returning lost items, the police have created a special division to retrieve and return lost items.
Attendly says that the MPD has a special Lost and Found Center in Tokyo, a 4-story warehouse filled with rows upon rows of neatly labeled and cataloged missing objects. It is estimated that about 800,000 items fill the warehouse, with 5,000 new items being brought in every day. Annually, the warehouse sees 30,000 mobile phones, 18,000 pairs of eyeglasses and 17,000 wallets.
There are even weird lost items such as wheelchairs, to which section chief Isao Sato wonders, "How did the owners ever get home? Were they suddenly and miraculously cured?" Another strange yet common acquisition in the warehouse is cash, with the center in Tokyo having received $23 million in case last 2002. Once owners can convince the MPD that it is theirs, a successful 72 percent of the cash was rightfully returned.
Finders will be glad to know that should money be left unclaimed for greater than 6 months, they get to keep the money. In one instance, a man found 100 million yen ($2.8 million), and was allowed to keep it after the 6 month period had passed. Another interesting thing about Japan's "Lost and Found" culture is its establishment of the "Lost and Found Project".
The project aims to reunite families during the devastating 2011 tsunami, where pictures swept away by the tempest are recovered, restored and returned to their owners. According to Munemasa Takahashi, lead artist for the project, "The first thing the people who lost their loved ones and houses came to look for was their photographs."
Since the project started, the team has returned more than 20,000 photos and 1,200 photo albums. Unclaimed photos were placed as part of the exhibit. This project is one of the most amazing results of Japan's Lost and Found culture. Check out this video for the cutest Lost and Found service in the world.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
