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It’s almost impossible to lose anything in Japan

twistedsifter.com

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Re: It’s almost impossible to lose anything in Japan

#51

Post by dr_dshiv »

I left my bag on a train the first day I arrived in Japan. I had fallen asleep and woke up to a conductor shouting at me. I grabbed my backpack and hurried out of the train. But, as soon as the doors shut, I realized my other bag was inside.

I went to the train authority and registered the lost item and everyone assured me that it would be found, no problem. I called back several times over the next 10 days but it never showed up. The train person told me “it must have been a Korean.” I was like, whaaa? My bag is lost and you are going to comfort me with racism?

Ah well, that was literally my only negative experience in the country.

Re: It’s almost impossible to lose anything in Japan

#52

Post by toast0 »

ehnto wrote: post #33
wirthjason wrote: post #22

This article is obviously not talking about bicycles. :) Is there some kind of HN Japanese article trend recently? In any case I appreciate the culture of getting lost stuff returned in Japan much more than “magical” conbinis. The article mentions money so I’ll add my anecdote. Many years ago as a student we had a going away party for some friends who were returning to the US. Someone had a “genius” plan to beat the…

Here's my anecdote: I lost my phone in Japan once, in Tokyo. I was steaming after a night of karaoke and somewhere between the bar, taxi and my hotel, I'd lost my phone. I wandered down to the street at 3am, retracing my steps, and a police officer noticed me and asked what I was looking for. He pointed me back to the hotel reception where where we got on the phone to the taxi company, and then directly onto the driv…

> I'd just dropped it under my bag.

That reminds me of when I was on a work trip, my wife came with me, but went sightseeing on the weekdays. One day she had gone to Versailles, and wasn't back by the time I got to the hotel after work. After waiting a reasonable amount of time, I called her cell phone and heard it ringing and just about died of anxiety. Fortunately, her phone wasn't left in the room, she was in the hallway, seconds away from opening the door.

Re: It’s almost impossible to lose anything in Japan

#53

Post by stevekemp »

ehnto wrote: post #33
wirthjason wrote: post #22

This article is obviously not talking about bicycles. :) Is there some kind of HN Japanese article trend recently? In any case I appreciate the culture of getting lost stuff returned in Japan much more than “magical” conbinis. The article mentions money so I’ll add my anecdote. Many years ago as a student we had a going away party for some friends who were returning to the US. Someone had a “genius” plan to beat the…

Here's my anecdote: I lost my phone in Japan once, in Tokyo. I was steaming after a night of karaoke and somewhere between the bar, taxi and my hotel, I'd lost my phone. I wandered down to the street at 3am, retracing my steps, and a police officer noticed me and asked what I was looking for. He pointed me back to the hotel reception where where we got on the phone to the taxi company, and then directly onto the driv…

> I was steaming after a ..

Every now and again I get a feeling of nostalgia for the Scotland, and I have to say reading that reminded me so strongly of being there it was unreal.

You could be from anywhere, but it's fascinating what even a single word of slang or dialect will trigger memories and emotions.

Re: It’s almost impossible to lose anything in Japan

#55

Post by openplatypus »

Meanwhile, anecdotally, I once found someone driving licence on the street, in small Bavarian town. When I returned the driving license at the Police Station I met with bewilderment. Like never ever returned these before.

I hope this was just an isolated case.

German youth is also tought morality but not sure it always sticks.

Re: It’s almost impossible to lose anything in Japan

#56

Post by Lascaille »

noasaservice wrote: post #3
version_five wrote: post #2

Interesting to read that > In Japan, citizens are required to take lost property to the Koban (police station). From there, it is either returned or stored at the Tokyo hub until claimed. A few years ago, I found a wallet on the ground and I took it to the police station. (The experience itself was a bit bizarre, they evidently had a "triage" system where you have to use a computer to select why you're there and get…

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Re: It’s almost impossible to lose anything in Japan

#58

Post by Aeolun »

88840-8855 wrote: post #46
wirthjason wrote: post #22

This article is obviously not talking about bicycles. :) Is there some kind of HN Japanese article trend recently? In any case I appreciate the culture of getting lost stuff returned in Japan much more than “magical” conbinis. The article mentions money so I’ll add my anecdote. Many years ago as a student we had a going away party for some friends who were returning to the US. Someone had a “genius” plan to beat the…

Yes, the article is a bit black and white. Of course it is possible to lose things in Japan. There are a lot of bad guys and girls there. I lived there, worked there. I once dated a girl who turned out to have mental health issues. She probably had a sociopathic disorder; often she would just walk into a store and steal groceries. She had money, in fact she was doing very well financially. And yet she stole. The othe…

> There are a lot of bad guys and girls there.

I’m not sure I would go so far as to say that. Of course you have a lot of them in absolute terms in a country of 110M people, but relatively I think they’re doing pretty well.

Re: It’s almost impossible to lose anything in Japan

#59

Post by Aeolun »

_cs2017_ wrote: post #31
patio11 wrote: post #13

Not a particularly good article so some things that y'all might find interesting: "Honor" and "a sense of responsibility" explains very little and good, widely distributed Schelling points (koban and, to a lesser extent, commercial/transit centers information/etc desks) that both do the right thing for lost/found items and are widely believed to do the right thing explains most of it. You are legally entitled to a re…

In my experience, in major American cities, anything valuable left in plain view in a car is stolen within 30 minutes (and that requires breaking the car window or picking the lock). But you're saying that things dropped on the ground will not be stolen, and instead returned to the nearest police station if only there was one not too far? Could you provide any arguments or evidence to support your claim?

It’s not really something you prove. The stats speak for themselves right?

Anecdotaly, we’ve lost bags, bottles, wallets and phones, and everything has (so far) been returned.

Even a missing hat that had travelled all the way down to the end of the train line.

I also left our $200 Strider unattended in the park for several hours, you really don’t think about it too much.

Re: It’s almost impossible to lose anything in Japan

#60

Post by [deleted] »

_dh54 wrote: post #9

> Japan’s strong culture of morality. Do sociologists yet understand why some cultures are strong in morality yet some aren’t? Surely if we understood the forces that drive macro behavior we could duplicate desirable attributes like high morality in other cultures. I would really like it if we had this high level of morality in America.

[deleted]
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