Tokyo's honesty: $29.1 million of lost cash handed to authorities
The largest single amount of cash found was 16.8 million yen discovered in the Japanese capital's Shinjuku Ward; this was returned to a relieved owner
If honesty has another name, it must be Tokyo. People in the Japanese capital handed over a record 4.4 billion yet or $29.1 million in cash they found last year in public places, a newspaper reported on Thursday.
The mind-boggling total, a remarkable 12 million yen or $79,291 a day, is a major increase from the previous record of 3.99 billion yen handed in to police or public transport operators in 2022, the South China Morning Post said.
Lost and found
Much of the money in dropped wallets or purses and other lost items was found on public transport or on the streets.
There was also a nearly 20 per cent surge in retrieval in lost belongings, which totalled an incredible 4,444,854 items.
Announcing the 2023 statistics for lost property, Tokyo Metropolitan Police attributed the 10.3 per cent increase in cash returned due to more people commuting and visiting the city after the lifting of coronavirus restrictions.
Single biggest find
The largest single amount of cash found was 16.8 million yen discovered in Shinjuku Ward, which was returned to a relieved owner. Of the 4.4 billion yen found, some 3.23 billion yen was returned.
The Post quoted Izumi Tsuji, a professor at Tokyo’s Chuo University, as saying: “We do it because we know it is the right thing to do and to not hand in a purse or wallet would be stealing.
“We would also expect someone else to do the same for us if we lost something on a train or bus, so it is a question of trust as well as of honesty.”
Items retrieved
Among the most common items handed in to police in 2023 included driving licences, public transport passes, clothing and shoes, the daily said.
By Japanese law, anyone who finds lost money is required to hand it in to police but is entitled to a reward of between 5 and 20 per cent of the sum if it is claimed by the owner.
Honesty law
If the cash is not collected after three months, then the total sum goes to the finder. If the finder does not claim the money after an additional two months, then it goes to the local government, the Post reported.
In 2023, the Tokyo government benefited to the tune of 825 million yen in unclaimed funds.