HOPE IS NOT LOST An employee at the Lost and Found Center of the Tokyo police sorts thousands of items, from umbrellas to suitcases, wallets and phones, according to where and when they were lost by the owners. It’s part of a “national trait” among the Japanese to make sure they are returned. —Agence France-Presse
TOKYO, Japan — Lost your umbrella, keys, or perhaps a flying squirrel? In Tokyo, the police are almost certainly taking meticulous care of it.
In Japan, lost items are rarely disconnected from their owners for long, even in a megacity like Tokyo with a population of 14 million.
“Foreign visitors are often surprised to get their things back,” said Hiroshi Fujii, a 67-year-old tour guide at Tokyo’s vast police lost-and-found center.
“But in Japan, there’s always an expectation that we will.”
It’s a “national trait” to report items found in public places in Japan, he told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “We pass down this custom of reporting things we picked up, from parents to children.”
Flying squirrels, iguanas
Around 80 staff at the police center in Tokyo’s central Iidabashi district ensure items are well organized using a database system, its director Harumi Shoji told AFP.
Everything is tagged and sorted to hasten a return to its rightful owner.
ID cards and driving licenses are most frequently lost, Shoji said.
But dogs, cats and even flying squirrels and iguanas have been dropped off at police stations, where officers look after them “with great sensitivity”—consulting books, online articles and vets for advice.
Last year, more than four million items were handed over to Tokyo Metropolitan Police, with about 70 percent of valuables such as wallets, phones and important documents successfully reunited with their owners.
“Even if it’s just a key, we enter details such as the mascot keychain it’s attached to,” Shoji said in a room filled with belongings, including a large Cookie Monster stuffed toy.
Over the course of one afternoon, dozens of people came to collect or search for their lost property at the center, which receives items left with train station staff or at small local police stations across Tokyo if they are not claimed within two weeks.
If no one turns up at the police facility within three months, the unwanted item is sold or discarded.
‘Umbrella trolley’
The number of lost items handled by the police center is increasing, as Japan welcomes a record influx of tourists postpandemic, and as gadgets become smaller, Shoji said.
Wireless earphones and handheld fans are an increasingly frequent sight at the lost-and-found center, which has been operating since the 1950s.
But a whopping 200 square meters (2,100 square feet) is dedicated to lost umbrellas—300,000 of which were brought in last year, with only 3,700 of them returned, Shoji said.
“We have a designated floor for umbrellas … During the rainy season, there are so many umbrellas that the umbrella trolley is overflowing and we have to store them in two tiers,” she said.