Lost and Found in Japan

yay! first comment

When I was 11, I left my P.E bag in a train on the Underground, my GBC was inside it too!

I called the London Underground customer service, they directed me the Distric Line terminal office.

The bag made it all the way to the last stop @ Upminster w/o anyone picking it up! >.<

So I got my stuff back and I missed P.E that week too! (yay~)

Today, if you forget your bag in the train, bomb squad will come to blow it up -_-;

recently lost cash equivalent to something like 70 usd. wont be seeing that one anymore. my only regret is that i could have bought some more figurines. japan is nice that people respect other people's belongings. i wish everywhere is like that.

in indonesia, if you lost something, the probability for it to returned to you is almost 0%(no, it IS 0%). there are some cases if you lost your wallet, the wallet will be returned to you, but only the wallet. the person who found it will take the money, credit card, ATM card. and then he/she will return it to your address and left it at the garbage bin

LMAO at "dolphin care trouble" XD Trains here are 100%-sayonara-garanteed. So there's no need in such services like "lost-and-found", it would be completly uselessю Folks here are "fast and furious" ^^;

he he dolphin care products.. didn't know tenga was in to environmentalism...

i work in lost and found at a hotel.. i'd say it about 50% on finding stuff.. thats if the STAFF didn't take it.. but something small like a cell phone or a DS.. forget it... its gone..

reminds me a time of my wife when we first got here.. went to Mc D's.. and left her purse under the table and left.. remembered not 2 minutes later and drove back and it was gone.. and the counter lady was zero help.. she probably took it.. lesson.. don't leave stuff in the us that you want back!

Lost my wallet once at Sentosa.... Got it back minus the 20 bucks in it. Guess some punks took it....

I lost my wallet once, with $50 inside, and someone found it and returned it to me back with only my Student ID Pass left in the wallet ( > _ < )

This was when I was still in high school =/

if the same thing happened in malaysia, the guy at the other station would have intercepted it and told you that its no longer there and make it his own.
come' on even umbrellas are not spared

I left my brand new Neil Gaiman book American Gods in a cab after work and it was gone. :(

With this level of safety, living in Japan does seem equal to more peace of mind.

Well, all the more reason to move there~ ^^

@Danny
Just curious, do you still have the cellphone? ^^

Nope, never lost something, lucky me. ^o^v
I'm a pretty carefull person when it comes to my stuffs, i tend to check my bags like 2 times before i leave somewere. Also in trains etc. pp. i always keep my belogings close to me.
I'm very afraid of losing something i really like.

I remember leaving some Starwars movie posters on a bus overhead shelf back in Vancouver. it was sayonara posters for me.
Although I remember my Dad lost his mobile phone in Japan once, the guy who found the phone was so kind as to go all the way to where we were to return the phone. thats Japan for you. ^^

there are times here that some people will return your lost item but there are also times that it will be lost forever

but mostly people will return your lost item intact ^^

Left my animation paper on the bus and was bye bye for them ... had to buy a new package of animation paper, cost me 50 bux ><

An interesting read about lost and found in Japan:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/08/international/asia/08LOST.html?ex=1388898000&en=98f9bd88863a14f5&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND

Over here, most things that are lost = sayonara. Only once did a taxi driver returned my lost handphone (maybe cause I was calling it non-stop for about 30mins). Anything else...well... /wave forever lol. 3 times I lost my mp3 player :( (2 times was brand new, I'm such a forgetful slop)

I remember I lost a CD wallet full with 20 of my favorite albums, when I was in College. I left it in the plane, back from a trip to Florida. It was a sayonara... Guys from the airport were not able to find it.
Also, I lost once my home key in the middle of a soccer ground. I fell from my sport bag, but was finally recovered after almost one hour searching for it ^^;

LOL, I'm in Japan?! How is that possible?!

Anyway, I lost my library card and bas pass before... Alot of money gone, just like that and didn't get it back... Thinking about it, makes me feel even more of a loser than I already am...

I remember when I was in highschool I lost my school ID and it was returned by my crush XP.

Anyway, here in the Philippines you can say sayonara to your stuff if you left it anywhere. Finders keepers. Though there are a few good souls that still have a heart and return lost stuff to the owners. Especially big monies. They even feature those on TV to set as an example to everyone.

Thankfully haven't ever lost anything, because getting back lost stuff is very unlikely. Leave that kind of service to the Japanese XD

@Lostandfound: LOL!

I lost my Nokia 3210 7 years ago, in an arcade, back in old Philippines, and i never got it back. It was brand new... It fell off my pocket when i was playing a racing game.

I just recovered my old PS memory card that i thought i lost after moving so much. ^^;

this post reminds me of fellow member lostandfound. ^^;

anyway in singapore if u lost something, the chances of u getting it back is very slim. finders keepers i say. ('~')

i heard before of people who found a wallet, took the money and deposit the wallet with everything else inside into a nearby postbox/mailbox. the postman who see the wallet will then deliver the wallet to the owner's house based on the address on the identity card/driver license.

hahaha like getting back what you lost could happen here lots of mobile thefts have been happening here on gunpoint.

I found a diamond engagement ring outside of a grocery store once. I turned it over to the store's lost and found box. I never knew if person ever recovered it. Hopefully someone in the store did not sell it.

That's amazing. If you were here, bye bye phone forever. People aren't as nice as people over in Japan. You were sure lucky Danny. Maybe I should move to Japan soon...

I forgot my wedding ring at the Japanese Consulate here in Los Angeles (you can imagine how freaked out I was).

I was certain it was lost forever, but once my wife (far more level headed than I), deduced that I must have left it at the consulate, I called them up and sure enough they had it and were holding it for me.

So... not sure if that counts as having lost my ring in the US... or "Japan". ^_~

The system actually works in Japan.

In London, it may as well be called lost and... Lost.
I left a small spool of blank media on a bus once before. Never saw it again.
Not a major loss but still annoyed.

I forgot my wallet (had like $100 in it and several bank cards and personal id's) on a streetcar, and I got it back from the lost and found station (billions of lost stuff in there with no one to claim the ownership... and i swear i saw at least 10 laptops in there...) with everything in it. So i'm pretty happy about what they do here in Toronto. ^.^
Actually it's all about social morals and how people take these morals seriously. IT would be very very far-gone if that thing of mine happened on a streetcar in China...

When I was walking down a busy street in the center of the town where I live the person who was walking in front of me dropped his headphones, so (of course) I picked them up and knocked on his shoulders to give them to him.

The funny thing is that exactly the same thing happened to me a month later or so, I dropped my expensive headphones when taking out something else from my pocket. But luckily someone behind me saw it and returned them to me.

Karma, ne?

I left my cellphone on a public transport and I never got it back. If it's something valuable, chance is you won't get it back ever >.>

My suitcase was once put on an airport bus at a hotel in Tokyo without the porter telling me the bus was there... (I missed the bus arrival myself because being British I had no concept of public transport arriving on time). When I told them what had happened they paid for a taxi to take me to the airport, where I found the case had been handed in. Phew.

I lost my virginity once. Never saw it ever again. I even saw who took it... ^^

hmm. I must have lost about £15 of over the course of life and I always loose clothes or towels when on holiday.

When I was 9 and we moved to the U.S., I had brought aboard a briefcase full of Matchbox cars with me as a carry on. Right upon arrival at LAX, the latch popped open and all my collectible cars were rolling around everywhere on the aircraft.... I got most of them back, but I'm sure I did not recover some of them. :(

At the age of 5, I left my "Gameboy Brick" on the airplane. Then 2 years ago lost my wallet at the shanghai airport(This is was the most devastating, considering how much money I just got from my relatives in HK). Recently I dropped my cell some where in the streets. I never saw those things ever again, so all of them went "sayonara" >_>;

Strangely enough, I just had a dream this morning where I left my DS on the bus. It was terrible.
My brother lost his new DS at school last year. Then he took all my old games and traded them in for a new DS. It was a promo at a store here.

This was in Singapore: I dropped my first cell phone (of a few years, but it was quite well taken care of :P) while shopping and it was sayonara, I'm sure someone saw it dropped, picked it up and pocketed it (grrr!) It was not any fancy phone too, but it was painful to have to cancel the number, fork out another few hundred to get a new phone *shakes fists at the thief*

In Canada, someone I know (no not my husband LOL) misplaced his phone before at a mall, but cos his phone was a really old model it was found and he got it back. But if it was a new phone it'd defninitely be sayonara =_=;

A bit OT: this is also in canada, we had experienced a pickpocket on chinese new year day (forgot if it was the year before or 2 years ago) and it was awful cos just got some $ to pack red packet o_o; and the real pain is to have to get a buncha IDs/cards replaced x_x you get the gist!

the most recent item i lost was a brand new white w810 sony cellphone while clubbing. i'm guessing it slipped out of my pocket while i was grinding up against some girls. never saw it again, whoever took it could've at least returned my SIM card :(

LOL @ FatB, i remember losing that too, shame i never got it back either.

People generally don't turn things in　around here, once somethings lost it's usually forever.

Last time I lost something I managed I was out after work, got very drunk and left my bag in the pub. 1 PSP and 2 games, 2 japanese textbooks and 6 volumes of Fullmetal Alchemist manga I had just bought. I did actually manage to get the bag back though, and was pretty amazed to see everything there. Was very lucky, thought the PSP would have been lifted for sure (pretty sure most thieves would have left the manga though ^_^).

I haven't lost anything major like a laptop or an expensive phone but I did lost a pair of earrings given by an ex-girlfriend once. i went through all the trouble of tracing my way back all the way around university grounds to look for it. I was about to give up when out of the blue there it was in front of me lying in the grass under a tree.

Luckily i haven't forgotten anything before, at least not something important enough that i remember losing it.

My friend ended up losing his wallet on a bus before with everything in it. When he realized that he lost his wallet lots of cursing happened, phoned the bus station and he got his wallet back 1 hour later with everything as it was. Lucky.

one more reason to go and stay in japan ^_^;

Lucky for me I haven't lost anything in the train so far. Here in Holland it's sayonara for sure if things are valuable (only unmbrellas, scarfs, etc. are left alone).

In Brazil you can pretty much say Sayonara to most things lost.

Usually, when some huge amount of money is lost and someone actually returns it, this alone is reason to make news for a long time... it happened once before.

As for me, about a month ago I forgot brand new swimming equipment that cost me around 140R$ (70US$) on a gym that I was making a test class.

I called them the next day, and sayonara. Needless to say I didn't go back there... the gym didn't even have lockers. And if there are people willing to steal swimming equipment, the next thing I would loose would probably be my wallet and cellphone.

On the other hand, few weeks ago I lost a credit card on a big shopping center... I called some stores I used it last, no luck. I was starting to get desperate when someone adviced me to call the shopping center administration... they had found my credit card. Next day I went there and got it back. Very grateful..

I remember leaving a bag with a bunch of things like an issue of Newtype, a couple manga and maybe an artbook in the arcade. I 1-credit-cleared Giga Wing and I was so happy about it that as I left, I forgot to get my stuff lol
Thankfully, when I came back, the staff got my stuff and held onto it, so I could just get my stuff back.

I put an envelope and my jacket and a couple of software cds aside while I was shopping at a certain store trying out their things and totally forgot about it when I left coz all I was thinking bout was the stuff that I just bought. LOL. I was just glad that the next day when I came back to the store they still was holding on to my stuff. ^^ I'm usually lucky when it comes to these things. XD

I once lost a bag of expensive clothes on the D train coming back to Brooklyn for Manhattan. It was pretty much the same story. I was so excited about the clothes that I forgot I had them.

I also lost my wallet a few times, but luckily I didn't have anything in it. The worst lost I ever had was when I lost my gaijin card in Osaka. I was real angry because even though I filed a report with the police I couldn't find it. I got it replaced a few weeks later though. Since then I haven't lost anything important.

lost a wrist watch once. left it at the pool side and never saw it again.

also included in the lost:
1.Handphone
2.wallet
3.pencil case
4.innocence

I once dropped my wallet in a cab and called the cab company about it.

Within an hour, the driver came back to the drop off point with my wallet and everything intact, he even refused to let me pay for his trip back to return my wallet. That really made my day knowing honest people still exist

Japan is so honest most of the time...
Me: I seemed to lost my baby son...
Police: What the!?
Me: Well this is lost and found
Police: Oh, it's in the top self...
Me:.......

I lost my (rented) cell phone on the subway while in Japan. It ended up at the lost and found, so I just had to go out and recover it, but I was real worried for a while. Getting that back saved me a _lot_ of money.

in 3 years I lost about 6 umbrellas T__T I always end up leaving it somewhere..and when I come back..it's gone. No matter how long I look for it, I'm never going to find it. People here have a habit of picking up things that don't belong to them.

So shameful really. I remember one of my friends was studying in one of the side benches inside our college building. She left her bag and all her textbooks..They took the one we need to use for that day.

Yes, and sayonara.

I have found many items here on campus though belonging to other people: All of them recovered their devices because I turned them in.

1) Wallet
2) Phone
3) Ipod

about 7 years ago I was in Japan with my dad doin a little otaku shopping for the very first time, and I bought a Keiji Gotoh artbook (his first one with wedding dress Ruri on the cover). I think somewhere along the store and on the way back (possibly the train) I ended up losing it. I totally don't remember where I remember having it last though, and neither of us thought about going to the lost and found :( So it was goodbye prized artbook...

A week later though in Taiwan (Japan was a 2 day side trip) I came across the same book in an anime store and picked it up (though it may very well be a bootleg lol...)

i went to a walmart  and my brother asked me if  I could go to an ATM and I forgot my brother's card (^ . ^;) but i didn't notice until I was looking for the card on my pants, then i said OMG!!!! the ATM... then I went to the lost and found objects and they picked it from the ATM, they give it back to me after a few questions about the name of the owner...my brother... and then i got the card back that was a close shot...

I'm so absent minded I forget everything all the time, it's quite sad really.
I can't describe a worse a feeling than losing your wallet, or cell phone.
Every time I misplace something like that I just feel so naked lol

yeah lost my backpack eating lunch during my high school days. some guy just took it when I left just to get napkins. I ask people around me but they didn't see anything. Had to buy new books and a new backpack and i still didn't know what happened.

Here's one from last summer. I was taking a chemistry course and after a long day of lecture and lab work I was exhausted. I got off the bus at my stop and double checked my stuff. A few moments later, I noticed that my wallet was gone. Checked my bag, pants pockets (where it usually is), jacket pockets each about 4 times really fast. I know I left it on the bus...since my pants pockets were huge.

I panicked because the was a lot of stuff in there. Credit cards, license, member cards, id's, monthly unlimited metrocard (public transportation), and some other stuff. Even if it didn't have much cash it there, it's going to be a pain to replace it.

The bus was already at the end of the long block. I ran after it as fast as I could with the huge hardcover textbook in my backpack. When I got to the corner, it was already halfway up the next block. Traffic lights didn't help. The next block was uphill...

For the next 5 blocks, I chased it until it caught a traffic light. I didn't want to drop my bookbag where anyone could have picked it up while I was gone (they will do that in my neighborhood). I finally found an abandoned block, threw the bag against the base of a tree and sprint after the bus where it stopped to pick up a few passengers.

Yeah, I caught it. I told the driver that I forgot something and he allowed me 15 seconds to get it. There it was standing upstraight in between the seat and the wall where I sat by the window. Relieved, I was never so glad that I was on the college track team.

remember losing my uni qlo bag in tokyo station last yr...never got it back, even at the lost and found.The lost and found guy called me a gaijin...

Ha! That's a good story, such good people to find and help you with your forgotten phone.

Dolphin products would have been akward to describe...

lost a pair of sandals at the beach

took em off before i jumped into the surf. came back, they were gone.

they were the only things i brought with me anyway.

lost my wallet in a bar because i was dead drunk... never got it back. i found a palm os fone in a taxi, called up the first person on the outgoing log list and was able to personally give it to the dude. he was on a business trip in our country. i just gave the fone and left immediately.

I lost my Gameboy color version of Mario Golf at a small airport in Montana. So many hours of my life were in that little cart... gone forever.

Lost my Lavander PSP Slim which is only 2 weeks old at a local eatery during lunchtime.. Left my bag on an empty table while I went to my favourite stall to order my food. Came back to the table and found my bad ransacked..
How nasty people can get -.-

Bay Area Rapid Transit(BART) has claimed many of my beanies, and hats over the years.

I often see my suspected swag worn by the various homeless of this fine city.

Someone I know lost his wallet during a school trip to Disney World in Florida. Two weeks later our school got a package in the mail and in it was his wallet.
It's good to know there's nice people out there. :]

I always seem to be losing hats and umbrellas, but I am very good at returning stuff. My dad recently found a blackberry device last week, he called the numbers on there and tracked the owner down in 15 minutes.

I lose a company mobile phone. That was a blast. I was so mad at the time when I got scolded >_< by my boss and I put my phone on top of the car and drive off. I was so terrible mad and completely forget my phone on top of the car. LOL

Sadly i couldn't find it in the end.

Well, I had a friend who've went to hand up his assignment while he left behind his laptop charger in the school cafeteria, well, despite my warnings (I was about to head off for my part time job) to take everything with him, he simply left everything behind (And it happened in less than 5 minutes).

Thats how scary and fast people can be in singapore.

Most recently I lost my biology text book in a hotel room in Japan. Asked if it was found, but no luck. Then I had my exam like a week later. What a time to lose my source of revision, plus now I owe my school a book.

Left a physics text book as well in my freshman year of CEGEP (pre-university in Quebec) on a bus. Never saw it again. The worst was that it was the beginning of the year so I had just bought it (just over a hundred bucks!) and it would cover material for the next 2 years of my studies.

i lost 2 phones in the past, or rather stolen!

i forgot my phone in the school library and when i return, it was already gone. >.<

Now you see why we want to live in Japan. When I was 12 I once lost my wallet which held my reusable bus concession pass, 20 bucks and other paraphernalia. Never saw it again.

Mostly luck...Lost is forever...Kind soul are rare here...

I lost my wallet, but found all my cards, Identity cards, credit cards, membership cards... in my letterbox a few days later.

Money and wallet was gone though. But fair enough that get all the cards back at least.

i left my jogging shorts and almost brand-new underwear in the showers at a local gym, they were never returned to the information desk when i asked the next day. i wonder if they are using my barely used underwear, hmm??

My old phone (Nokia 3510) was in school yard about half year, in snow and it still works. :O

Aha, it is not common in Japan.

i lost my phone before, drop in the carpark(I think), then can't found it back :(, that 1 is my 1st phone as well.

My father went to a family's iron factory. only left the car for 5 minutes (the car is locked!) and when back to the car, the glasses are no more and phone etc stolen.
My sis' friend went to a game center and when she went out her phone (in her bag) is no more
^ both in Indonesia
I dropped my mobile phone in a bus (or MRT station, not sure) in Singapore because my pocket was crappy. upon realizing, I borrowed my friend's phone and call my lost phone. no more, my SIM card might have been ripped out. <- the one and only time I lost something

the last thing I lost was my phone which I lost when I went to see dir en grey and never saw it again. =(

Yup, lost my favorite mobile at PortAventura's water slide.

Guess it was my fault for stuffing the free scarf in my pocket and forgeting i had my phone there when I pulled it out :s

When I was 11 I lost my wallet with SGD$0.20 and was very devastated because at that time $0.20 can buy you a lot of sweets

dropped my wallet in a bus when i was 14. I recovered my wallet from the main station MINUS ALL THE MONEY inside

YES & SAYONARA!!! i remember when i was in high school i was going to soccer practice & i left my ipod in the bathroom & then run off like crazy cuz i was late for practice & then 2 hours later i said "i want to listen some music while i wait for the bus" & then BANG!!! NO IPOD!!! i remember i felt like crying cuz it was the very 1st item i bought with my own money, i hope it has a good owner & takes care of my ipod. ANYWAY my dad bought a new ipod hehehe a 30GB one (don't like it too fat!! & big)

xD This issue somehow brings me good and exciting memories of my adolescence, one of them was simple: I called from a public phone, and when I finished the call I forgot to take out the phone card and I went to my house and when I arrived I realized what had happened so I take to run to the site where I called (because it was relatively close) and when I get there the card was no longer.
That's it, but it hurts so;
(Not the card, but the theft).
Ta' luego!.

losing things is painful TT^TT
at an anime con last year i bougt a beautiful death note poster for mi room cuz i was in that "OMG L LAWLIET" phase, yea i totallie remember carrying it but i got distraced when i saw higurashi items like a nerd realizing later its gone
then later i got another poster stolen ;~;
its a painful sad truth of life we must endure

Left my HDD (AKA My Life!!) in a gathering, ran back to the gathering place phoning about every friends which were on the gath, and... GOT IT BACK!!!
I'm sure I cried when I'm running back...

Lost a bunch of things... didn't get them back. Mostly because I was in the Phils. Misplace something there and its gone. Here, leave your car keys stuck onto the door and when you get back, it'll still be there (or with the manager of the nearest store)... and your car too.

^_^

that was lucky!

I had a similar experience, I got back from a day of skiing, as was putting my skis into the car I realized I didn't have my poles so I had to run back to the train which was luckily still at the station. I asked the engineer if he could open the doors and he let me in.
Got lucky with that one.