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Why Japan is so successful at returning lost property

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Re: Why Japan is so successful at returning lost property

#41

Post by peterhadlaw »

harikb wrote: post #32
jrsdav wrote: post #5

I experienced this while visiting Japan. While doing a transfer on the Shinkansen in Hiroshima, I left my camera bag at a noodle kiosk on the platform (around $3k worth of equipment). Didn't realize it until 2 hours after getting on the next train. When we arrived at our destination, I told my friend we were meeting (a Japanese native) what happened, and she reassured me that it would be right where I left it (said s…

Is it possible the social support structure, education, etc are creating a society where unfortunate people don't have to steal/pawn to make a living?

I think the point is that it's a cultural thing, regardless of how fortunate or unfortunate someone is.

Re: Why Japan is so successful at returning lost property

#42

Post by 9HZZRfNlpR »

harikb wrote: post #32
jrsdav wrote: post #5

I experienced this while visiting Japan. While doing a transfer on the Shinkansen in Hiroshima, I left my camera bag at a noodle kiosk on the platform (around $3k worth of equipment). Didn't realize it until 2 hours after getting on the next train. When we arrived at our destination, I told my friend we were meeting (a Japanese native) what happened, and she reassured me that it would be right where I left it (said s…

Is it possible the social support structure, education, etc are creating a society where unfortunate people don't have to steal/pawn to make a living?

I'm sure it plays a role, but there are countries with similar wealth and support systems, but so many things (like the lost property example) are unique to Japan.

Re: Why Japan is so successful at returning lost property

#43

Post by davemp »

reroute1 wrote: post #33
mcast wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the standard I've encountered at coffee shops and school libraries, no one seems to mind. However, it would be easy to build an app that alarms when the battery becomes disconnected (i.e. someone walks away with your stuff).

> It would be easy to build an app that alarms when the battery becomes disconnected (i.e. someone walks away with your stuff). Wait what? How does this work?

If laptops/phones have power events that you could hook into for when charger is unplugged. Just start blaring the speakers when you detect such an event without the alarm being disarmed first.

Re: Why Japan is so successful at returning lost property

#44

Post by JakeTheAndroid »

reroute1 wrote: post #33
mcast wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the standard I've encountered at coffee shops and school libraries, no one seems to mind. However, it would be easy to build an app that alarms when the battery becomes disconnected (i.e. someone walks away with your stuff).

> It would be easy to build an app that alarms when the battery becomes disconnected (i.e. someone walks away with your stuff). Wait what? How does this work?

on OSX or Linux you could grep the logs every few minutes or seconds or whatever and see the battery status that includes AC power. From there you could have it alert you via whatever method you want.

On OSX:

pmset -g rawlog

Output:

$ pmset -g rawlog pmset is in RAW logging mode now. Hit ctrl-c to exit. * Battery matched at registry = XXXX 01/15/20 XX:XX:XX No AC; Not Charging; 75%; Cap=5490: FCC=XXXX; Design=XXXX; Time=X:XX; -752mA; Cycles=14/1000; Location=XX; Polled boot=01/15/20 XX:XX:XX; Full=01/15/20 XX:XX:XX; User visible=01/15/20 XX:XX:XX

I expect there are more elegant solutions, but this would theoretically work, as I used to use this among other things to track my daily laptop usage to see how on task I was any given day. If the lid is closed but unplugged then I was probably going to/in a meeting, if the lid is closed and charging then I was likely afk, not working. Worked pretty well to give me a ballpark of my productivity.

Re: Why Japan is so successful at returning lost property

#45

Post by zuminator »

sanitycheck wrote: post #6

I think part of this is that a far greater proportion of "lost" valuables in Japan are _really_ lost than in other countries, street crime being pretty rare. But still, that 6% figure for New York! Can it be true? Is it really normal to steal other people's shit if they leave it behind?

Just as an anecdote from a NYC resident, a couple years back I found a Japanese woman's wallet on a commuter bus. From the address I saw that the owner lived in my neighborhood so I went by her home after work to return it. Nobody was home so I left a little note with my phone number. She called me, and I met her the next day to return it to her. I considered our business concluded but about two months later she and her husband sent me a Christmas card with a gift card inside. I thanked them but sent the gift card back.

I have also lost my own wallet on multiple occasions when I was younger and more careless, and I would say it was returned maybe two out of five times. Not great, but not that bad either.

Re: Why Japan is so successful at returning lost property

#46

Post by verisimilidude »

The abundance of "police boxes" in Japan, small satellite police stations, probably helps a lot.

While living in Japan, I found a lost wallet on the street, in the gutter. That wallet was sitting just down the street from the police. Line-of-sight. Picking up the wallet and taking it to the station was immediately obvious and convenient.

Re: Why Japan is so successful at returning lost property

#47

Post by minaa-chan »

zebnyc wrote: post #27

Honest question: Do folks feel warm fuzzies when they do something "good / +ve"? Frankly unless I went out of my way to do something significant, I don't feel anything. Asking as there might be some of that going on here. For e.g., around Christmas here in SF, I was a at a shopping mall parking lot waiting for my wife to return. I noticed a man counting a few bills of cash. He counted and then turned to head to his c…

I don't. I do "good" things because that's the way I was raised. I actually dislike getting thanked or anything that draws attention to the "good" thing I did because it seems so needless.

Occasionally I'll feel a twinge of guilt if I could've helped out and didn't but usually I do it out of habit.

Re: Why Japan is so successful at returning lost property

#48

Post by NotASithLord »

My phone slipped out of my pocket on the subway on my last night in Tokyo. Realized 20 minutes later, talked to some employees and described what kind of phone it was (a cheap Samsung, really not a big deal), gone as can be. Flew back home to Miami.

Received my phone back in the mail a month later. A friend of mine there kept checking with the employees and it eventually showed up in lost and found. Refused to allow me to pay for the international shipping.

Re: Why Japan is so successful at returning lost property

#49

Post by ido »

virtuous_signal wrote: post #19
factsaresacred wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shame and the homogeneous makeup of the population likely play large roles. Comparing China to Japan won't do any good as the cultural revolution decimated its social capital.

I don't know about that last part. Most Eastern European countries were part of the USSR and underwent massive revolutions. I've even seen them described as low-trust societies, but they seem to do well.

What do you mean when you say eastern european countries "do well" (supposedly compared to China)?

Some (like the Baltics) are doing great, but I don't think I'd rather live in Moldova, the Ukraine or Albania rather than China.

Re: Why Japan is so successful at returning lost property

#50

Post by livueta »

harikb wrote: post #32
jrsdav wrote: post #5

I experienced this while visiting Japan. While doing a transfer on the Shinkansen in Hiroshima, I left my camera bag at a noodle kiosk on the platform (around $3k worth of equipment). Didn't realize it until 2 hours after getting on the next train. When we arrived at our destination, I told my friend we were meeting (a Japanese native) what happened, and she reassured me that it would be right where I left it (said s…

Is it possible the social support structure, education, etc are creating a society where unfortunate people don't have to steal/pawn to make a living?

I'm a little skeptical. Many Japanese live in a pretty grinding form of underemployment poverty - "freeter" will get you lots of hits in Western media. Moreover, some truly deprived groups like the urban homeless are almost notorious for generally _not_ engaging in the sort of petty property crime we're talking about that's common in similar demographics in the West.

Those make me lean towards cultural factors.

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