I read a story somewhere, maybe apocryphal, a businessman mistakenly left his briefcase at a downtown Tokyo crosswalk on a Friday morning.
Monday morning, it was still there, and he picked it back up on his way to work.
Heard a similar story from a tourist to Beijing. Left an expensive camera in some busy public square and found it where left three hours later.
In the 70’s a friend and I were in Chitose (small town) and went to see a movie (they were subtitled in Japanese so we could actually enjoy them). He left a brand new Sansui receiver in the box on the back seat car unlocked.
After the movie we came out it was still there, no problem and we weren’t surprised.
The story you heard happens hundreds or thousands of times every day here. Generally the people that live in Japan don’t bother with other people’s stuff. I’ve lost things, then saunter down to the police box and report that I lost a thing - if it comes up eventually please return it to me - yeah, a few days or weeks later, I get a knock on the door and a cop is returning my thing. I’ve found several wallets with cash in them and I’ve taken them to the police box to be handled by “the system”. I’ve had calls from the owners offering me a cash reward for turning in their valuables. I’ve never accepted. It’s a cultural and societal norm here that you just don’t interfere in things you’re not involved in, for the most part. That’s good and bad, but generally good.
On the trains, it is routine for misplaced items to be returned to their owners.
You would laugh if it were a story, however apocryphal, from any place else in the world, but...if it is in Japan, you can say “Yeah. I could see that...”
Unusual culture. I lived there for a few years, loved it.
But I like it here better...:)
In mid 1980’s I was in USAF, and stationed at Yokota AB, west of Tokyo, for two years. One of my friends dropped his wallet on the sidewalk in Yokota after (or during) a bar crawl. He came back the next day looking for it.
It was still there, with someone guarding it. Nobody had even looked inside to see who it belonged to, or called police about it. The citizen guarding the wallet assumed my friends honesty that the wallet was his as he picked it up.
Another friend was out at a club early one morning, and wisely elected to walk back to the base. As he walked, he heard a commotion down a dark alley and looked to see what was happening. He saw nothing in the darkness, and walked on. A few blocks later he was jumped from another dark alley, beaten severely, and told to mind his own business in future.
Air Force police told him that the commotion in the first alley was likely a Yakuza operation, as was the beating he received. Japanese police later confirmed Yakuza involvement. If you don’t know, the Yakuza is Japanese organized crime. They have official unofficial immunity from prosecution, as long as they stay out of the publics attention.