Hello? Calling my owner?

Lost, but nearly always found-even your pet

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 mega city like Tokyo – population 14 million.

“Foreign visitors are often surprised to get their things back,” said Hiroshi Fujii, a 67-year-old tour guide, describing Tokyo’s vast police lost-and-found centre.

“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 said. “We pass down this custom of reporting things we picked up, from parents to children.”

About 80 staff at the police centre in Tokyo’s central Iidabashi district ensure items are well organised using a database system, its director Harumi Shoji said.

Everything is tagged and sorted to hasten a return to its rightful owner.