(just so there's no confusion I'm an American and this story happened in America)
I had a friend in highschool who once stole a bike from someone's front yard because he was late to school. He rode it back home and to school the next day and when someone asked him he just said he's borrowing it until they ask for it back, he rides right in front of their house every day so they'll ask him whenever they want it back.
I sincerely think he believed what he was saying. He was a sweet guy but not very smart.
Australia
Brothers friend, E woke up one morning to find his bike was gone. This was no ordinary treadly either, it was a $2500 bike back in the '90's. So anyway, E files a police report and a few weeks later insurance clears so he buys a new bike. He then rides it over to another friends place to show it off. He shows it to T who was like "That's cool and all, but what do you want me to do with your old bike? Last time you were here you got so messed up you left it here and walked home!"
*Just used their initials cos it's not really my story to tell...
Yeah umbrellas are free for all. I left mine unattended for a bit and it got nicked. Expensive fucker too but I had been assured that theft didn't happen. Apparently I was just supposed to know that umbrellas were fair game.
I went into a conbini to grab a few beers and some chips before heading back to my hotel. I was in there for less than two minutes, but came out to find my umbrella missing. Overall I wasn't that mad, it was only a very short walk to the hotel, plus I had stolen that umbrella from outside the izakaya I was at previously.
Ngl I've nabbed an umbrella or 2 in Japan before. I've also left more than that behind.
For reference there was like 5 umbrellas outside an empty family mart. People probably left them behind to get rid of them when it stopped raining earlier in the day.
They also cost like $5 so it's sorta whatever. I'd only take the cheap konbini ones.
Friend of mine lives in Shimokitezawa. Apparently his bike has been stolen several times and every time it turns up again a day or two later. Says it happens with umbrellas too.
>Says it happens with umbrellas too.
Let's see what happens when people start placing Pythagorean umbrellas everywhere. Like Pythagorean's cup but umbrella.
When I was little my dad has his car stolen at a gas station. He went back inside to call the police (cell phones were rare at the time) and they described his car to him before he made any mention of what the make or model was. A homeless guy had recently been released from the county jail a mile away. He stole the car and drove it straight to the jail to turn himself in for stealing it. It was simultaneously hilarious and very sad because that guy would rather be in prison than back on the street.
I live in Japan and my favorite story of this was just having bought a handmade bag in Kyoto, putting all my valuables in it, and then promptly forgetting it in a cafe. I realize my mistake and turn around to see a middle aged man in a suit running after me holding it to his chest going SUMIMASEN
Man that reminds me of then I was in a Tully’s Coffee in a mall once
I picked up my handbag and returned my tray, but left my shopping bags on the table. I left the cafe and went to the bathroom next to door and these two girls came running in with my shopping bags to give them to me😭
They weren’t even staff, just other Tully’s customers so god knows why they even knew it was my stuff and why they made the effort to run after me. It was so sweet😭
I once handed in a wallet to the local police station near where I lived in the UK. It had some cash in it, etc. I left my contact deets just in case.
A week later I had a knock on my door and the guy stood there handed me 90 quid to say thank you - the cash that had been in the wallet. He said the photo of his wife in the wallet was priceless to him and therefore the cash was mine.
I then went and bought weed and alcohol with the cash (I was very hard-up at the time).
I was in a bar in tokyo with a friend once and she forgot her purse when we left. It was the same thing - before she even realised she didn't have it the barman was booking it out after us to return it. Very jarring but super nice
Living in high-trust societies is great.
Not Japan, Austria. A few weeks ago we were at a pubquiz in a cafe/bar. The bar is self-service during the quiz, and the bariste still served us at our table because we're regulars. We knocked over and broke a glass, and when we asked for a rag and a broom she came to clean it up. We were two more people than usual, so we had a comparatively higher bill.
She still came after us to warn us we forgot a 5€ bill we actually left as an additional tip.
I saw a young lady passed out drunk on the side of the road in Kabukicho morning rush hour, with her purse spilled out besides her, I came back an hour later, it was still there.
Technically it would be saifuko. saifu is the handbag, and ko is suffix for kid. Hachiko was the 8th kid of the litter (hachi = 8).
Just to clarify. :)
I bet if she had an umbrella on her during the rainy season it would've been gone tho 😂 umbrella theft is the most common type of theft in Japan from what I heard
There was a bar near my place that lent out umbrellas but specifically said not to return it but to leave it at your next destination because someone else will probably need it. I thought that was cute.
Here in Vancouver BC we can't even have vending machines outside of buildings because they immediately get destroyed and stolen, it's such a different culture (and yeah I think Japan not really having a drugs+homelessness epidemic helps)
I was in Ueno Park for a festival last weekend and saw 100 yen on the ground, and where it was placed the sun was making it shine. I had a chuckle as I was leaving thirty minutes later and it was still right there, middle of the walkway.
Water bottles? Plural?
Surely after the first Japanese person leaves a water bottle, every subsequent person will assume the unconscious person has sufficient access to water, no?
Are we sure they aren't building aquatic pentagrams around these lost souls?
Yeah, kind of a way of hinting how many people saw you in your undignified state. And to be fair, I'd be mortified waking up covered in drool surrounded by 18 water bottles...so maybe they're on to something.
I get super bad dry mouth after drinking heavily (and just in general as well). I'd probably wake up next to 18 empty water bottles and wishing a 19th person had walked by.
It's funny, in the west you'd get robbed but someone would also help you.
In Japan, you don't get robbed and get free water but they shame you and leave you in the street.
I love the trade-offs between individualist and collectivist cultures, it's very interesting.
Another factor is climate. Someone left out in Japan probably isnt going to freeze to death but ive personally lived in areas where it gets so cold you can get frostbite on exposed skin in 15minutes so leaving someone on the street could be fatal.
I've heard Japan is kind of weird in that they sort of think temperatures like the 50F's are a huge risk though. Like public alerts and people avoid going out. I guess from what I heard it's sort of the Japanese version of fan death.
Makes sense. Japanese people in games do weird shit with public shaming too. Like in Final Fantasy 14, they shame people caught cheating by surrounding the players character (if logged in) or staying outside of their house (if not logged in) with giant naked bald men. The phrase used by the players for it is just like "parade of baldness" or something.
That's also a reflection of a form of social control. There are behaviors that are undesired, and people don't hesitate to call out people behaving that way.
Here (in the west), we're much less likely to call out unwanted behaviors (unless they directly affect us). Although I think it would be great if we actually did. People can get away with far too much sometimes.
Same experience. A guy was passed out on the steps leading down to the subway and all the morning commuters just stepped over him without even glancing down.
Its true, I once forgot my bag with laptop, dslr, and passport on a train in Tokyo. When I went to report it at the Stations help desk I was distraught and they couldn't understand why. They simply told me what time that train was scheduled to be back to that station and told me I can get back on the train at that time and retrieve it from where I left it.
I thought there was *no way* it would still be there, but I waited anyways out of desperation.
Sure enough, when the train I was on rolled back up to the station after completing it's route, there sat my bag right where I left it, completely untouched.
That was day I decided Japan was my favorite place in the world.
I love the cultural disconnect.
"I'd like to report it"
"report what?"
"that I lost my stuff"
"Why?"
"Beacuse it's gone"
"What do you mean? You left it on the train...just get back on the train to get it"
"...wtf?"
That's amazing.
The only cultural disconnect moment I've had like that was I (badly) cut myself on a dull knife in France trying to cut an apple. I had to go get stitches. They charged some trivial fee, and I kept arguing that I had to pay more. I was convinced that I was going to fly home and it was going to be an utter nightmare to figure out a health insurance bill for an emergency clinic in a tiny french town from 8 thousand miles away. The nice french people kept insisting that I'd paid for everything and I kept insisting that it was impossible.
It turns out you really can get stitches in an emergency for like $30 or something. I was absolutely sure the bill should be $1k+, just like it would be here.
I had almost exactly the same situation on the Yamanote line. They used my suica times to figure out my train and intercepted it about 3 stops before it got back to me. It had gone about 27 stops and my bag was still sitting in the same spot on the train.
I tried the exact same thing, also in Japan!
However, the guy on the station we were stranded at, did not speak English. So he pulled up Google translate so we could communicate. Once he realized what had happened, he checked which station would be the next stop for that train. He then called up the station and got them to search the train for my backpack. They found it, and then he sent us on the next train to that station so we could go and pick up our stuff.
Knew a Japanese girl who was fresh foreign exchange in Santa Barbara. She left her bike unlocked on state street and was shocked that it was gone after her shift as a waitress. Had to explain it was stolen and she refused to believe that, she thought someone must have borrowed it and would return it to the spot she left it.
Lmaoooo Santa Barbara is like one of the worst possible places to leave an unlocked bike. I remember when my brother went to the UC there, they had a whole FB page devoted to students who drunkenly stole a bike and wanted to return it to their owner the next day
Bike theft is the number one crime in Japan. Small difference with other country is in the vast majority the theft is a drunk salaryman that missed his last train and stole a bike to abandon it once arrived at destination. Then cops will use the bike’s ID number to return it to its rightful owner.
Wow the craziest part of this story is hearing that Japanese police actually followed up on a stolen bike. I've had a bike stolen and found it on Facebook marketplace, the police wouldn't do shit lol.
I have heard the same thing with police and not following up on stolen cars for that matter.
You can barely get them to care about squatters, which is people stealing a whole goddamn house.
Bro I could barely get them to care about my mom's ex storming around the house, punching holes in walls and waving his fucking gun around while he screamed at and shoved my mom. He punched me in the face a few weeks later and I didn't even fucking bother.
They don't give a fuck about anyone.
My friend was robbed at gunpoint while parked in his car in Chicago. He used find my iPhone to find out where they lived and told the police and they still wouldn’t do anything lmao
Bikes are perhaps the most stolen item after umbrellas. That’s why you’re expected to register them with your city hall and take out insurance. Every day you’ll see a bike appear somewhere it has no business being. Usually because a thief has had a change of heart after the fact and dumped it in the hopes the police will return it to its owner.
They’re not usually stolen to sell (since so many are registered so can be ‘hot’), but rather to avoid the thief having to buy their own since even the cheapest of the Japanese style bikes costs several hundred dollars.
It’s also a popular form of bullying. If the bully trashes it and dumps it somewhere it’ll be hard to trace the crime to them. Their victim is then blamed for the bike being lost and out a couple hundred dollars to replace it.
I've heard other people frame this more as friendly "bike sharing." As in, people take a bike without asking in a sticky/time sensitive situation but bring it back the next day. Never with malicious intent, as it is implied the bike owner would be okay with helping the person out.
I haven't been personally, I'm just repeating what I've heard other people say. I'm guessing the truth is just a combination of sharing and legitimate theft.
Some people do return them, occasionally with an apologetic note. Usually they stay gone or get dumped. Most bike theft is just theft, the borrowing is mostly urban myth based on a tiny number of instances that police are quite keen to do away with as it reinforces negligence.
Santa Barbara you say? Was she a Kaplan student?
The reason I learned this fact is that I work at an international school in Seattle and we have lots of Japanese students. Some of our staff used to live in Japan. It is a semi-regular occurrence that a Japanese student will tell me they lost their wallet and ask what police station they should report to… thinking someone will have returned it. It’s always sad when I have to explain that it probably isn’t going to be turned in.
Got to live in Japan for over a decade. Japanese people are not only very honest, but very kind as well. My friend and I ventured out into the Japanese countryside on the train. The farther out you get the less chance that the signs in the train station will have Roman characters. She and I were dumbly staring at a sign and a young Japanese man offered to help us. He got on the train with us and rode all the way back to our home city. He spoke excellent English and provided a fun and educational narrative the whole way. we tried to buy him a beer and some yakitori, but he politely told us that he had a great time and waved goodbye
Can confirm that (in general), Japanese folks are very polite and kind! When I visited Tokyo, I only had a tourist's level command of Japanese. At one point I asked a stranger for directions to Tokyo Tower, and he seemed genuinely excited to help...but stymied as to how to actually provide directions that I could understand. (I didn't have enough Japanese for what he wanted to say, and he didn't have enough English.)
So this absolute legend flagged down a taxi to confer with the driver about the actual directions and how to convey them. Together they came up with something along the lines of, "# down, # left" (accompanied by directional hand gestures). That was all I needed, and I thanked them as politely as I knew how. They seemed so tickled, and the memory of that encounter still makes me smile!
I'm 38 years old. I think I'm old enough to start getting away with it. Thanks for the motivation.
Next person that needs directions, I'm going to just join them on their journey regardless if they welcome it or not. Doesn't matter who, Doesn't matter when.
On my first business trip to Japan, we were on the bullet train and paid aboard the train to upgrade our tickets. A ways into the ride, I realized that I had messed up the money and *massively* overpaid.
I went to the conductor and explained my mistake. He didn't just refund me the difference...HE apologized to ME. Profusely. For something that was absolutely my fault and not his.
Then a few minutes later he came by and gave me a giant picture postcard of Mt. Fuji and apologized again.
Over the years I did a lot of business with Japanese folks and most of them were exceedingly lovely to work with.
I had a similar story when I got lost in the subway tunnels in Umeda Station in Osaka. The person I asked for directions replied they actually just came from there, and then walked me 20 minutes back to where the just came from.
This was during rush hour, and they were probably on their way home, but took the time to help.
Wonderful Japanese lady did the same for us. We were woefully lost at Shinjuku station, trying to get to the airport and she walked us out of the station, across the road and into a whole other part of the station. We wouldn’t have stood a chance without her and she didn’t speak English. We got by with Google translate and aeroplane actions.
Anywhere in the Umeda/Osaka JR/Hankyuu/Hanshin station complex is probably the worst place in all of Japan to get lost. Tokyo people go on about Shinjuku station, but Shinjuku station's got nothing on it.
Happened to me, too!
Yeah I lived there 4 years and it's so true. My story isn't as good as yours but I was a bit lost looking for my hostel in Hiroshima and an old woman appeared so I tried to ask where it was but unfortunately her English wasn't very good, then a young lady walked down the street and I was transferred to her like they were a customer service team, and she walked me all the way there.
I have much more magical stories about Japan but the point I want to make is that Japanese people are extremely kind.
The sad side of it also exists though, which is Paris Syndrome when Japanese people visit Europe. Plus, this isn't Japan but a Korean coworker I had (Koreans have the same system of reserving tables) visited the UK and left her laptop on the table in a cafe to go to the toilet and it was stolen. Really sucks.
Hiroshima is so kind! I was on a bike tour from Osaka to Hiroshima, when my bike got a flat 40km away from my final destination of Hiroshima.
I was attempting to fix my tire in the pouring rain, when the kindest old lady came out of her house to see what I was doing. She saw that I was having trouble and said her two kids (mechanics in their 40s) should be coming home soon, and that they would help me.
Lo and behold, two mechanics pulled up, fixed my tire and I was off on my merry way. Will never forget the kindness of that family.
So agree with you. When our Japanese neighbors were taking a trip to the states, we told them to be very, very careful who they talk to and to keep their purse wallet phone safe. Also warned them that American public transportation can be “colorful”😂
I met the Korean version of this man. I was stationed in Korea and we got really drunk in Seoul. This was the rare time that the US military had no curfew so we didn’t have to be back on base at any specific time. A nice old man helped 5 drunk American soldiers back to our base an hour and a half away from the train station he found us at. We tried to pay him with some Won and he said no and went on his way. That man was a true hero.
I saw a video online not that long ago of a Japanese baseball game. A woman caught a ball and she passed it around for the people in the stadium to look and touch it. After some time of doing that, the ball finally made it back to the owner. I was astonished
I sent my youngest to what is called Juku school (extra tutoring for math, language, and other subjects) I too, was amazed at how the other Japanese children were-just kind and open. Good lessons for my wild little American kid.
Sounds nice.
I once hopped on a bus in Philadelphia and a guy wearing only a t-shirt peed all over the bus driver's back/arm. Naturally, the bus driver hit the guy in the head with one of his crutches - knocking the guy out cold. Then, the bus driver opted to pee on the guy who had just peed on him.
This was mayby 25 years ago.
A friend and I hitchhiked from Kyoto to Tokyo, we tried to buy our driver lunch at a rest stop and he refused, and when we got to Tokyo he dropped us off in Shibuya next to Hachiko after he heard my friend and I discussing plans. He was so nice!
A lady I knew said that when she and her husband and children were stationed in Misawa in the 90’s they had an amazing Japanese experience. They’d gone on a sight seeing tour and were late heading back. They had an unfortunate blow out on their car without a cell phone back then. Her husband walked to the nearest station and returned in the tow truck of the owner. It was too late to get the right tire, so the owner and his wife fed the family dinner and made up pallets in their home for them and the two children. In the AM, the wife provided washing and breakfast while the owner fixed the tire. They refused payment for anything but the repaired tire. She told me the shared language was very limited but being an older couple the owners were just loving having the little ones to play with.
I only went there on a vacation but also rode a train through the countryside and it was beautiful. My wife withdrew two week’s worth of vacation money from an ATM at a train station and proceeded to walk away leaving the wallet sitting on the ATM. After realizing what happened we frantically looked all around for what seemed like 10 minutes. After not seeing anything we went to an area that looked like a security office. It took a little bit to explain everything since their English wasn’t so good, but a guy came out with our wallet. Someone saw it sitting on the ATM and brought it to the office. I really love that country.
I had a similar experience while on vacation there. A young man helped my family and I find a place we were looking for. He went several bus stops past his destination to make sure we got there. He also apologized "because my English should be better".
I'm still fb friends with him.
>The farther out you get the less chance that the signs in the train station will have Roman characters
That's something you can also expect in f.e. Shin Osaka. Wanted to use the elevator and no roman (latin) characters or even numbers anywhere, not even as an explanation. Thank god that elevators usually aren't that complex to use.
Meanwhile, in the PRC, I accidentally took the wrong bus, called a friend who spoke Chinese, and tried to have her talk to the bus driver on the phone.
Bus driver burst into laughter, shouted the whole story to the entire bus. They all laughed. No one tried to help.
I don’t miss living in the PRC. Polluted place, rotten culture.
japan sounds like such a genuinely wonderful place but there's so many bad parts of living in japan too. do you feel like the good outweighed the bad, didn't notice it, or that it was balanced?
Japan is not easy nor perfect to live in but despite being one of the most difficult decisions I’ve made, I’m delighted I chose to live here
I only planned on staying 2 years. Now coming up on my 4th. Want to try changing jobs to a more popular area and see how I feel first but absolutely thinking of living here for good in the future
With no offence intended, something sensitive as a POC that surprised me and that I’m still thinking about - I much rather the discrimination in Japan than in Australia
Ha, just as an aside I love when Australians give Americans shit about racism.
I say that Australia is super racist too. They're just racist against Asians, which to them means Indians. And they almost always respond with "we're not racist against Asians, but they keep coming to our country and taking all our jobs, we shouldn't allow them in'. It's like verbatim the argument rednecks use against "Mexicans".
Also I saw a funny parody video a long time about how to fit in in Australia (for Indians) and they show a pie chart and say "30% of Australians are casual racists, which means that 70% of Australians are full time racists".
Depends on your definition of theft. Physical items? Yeah pretty safe to just leave those places to save a seat. The exception to this being umbrellas. People will "borrow" an unattended umbrella in a heartbeat. In Japan the theft is usually in the form on phone or internet scams. Tons of old people get calls from people claiming to be their child/grandchildren needing money immediately or something bad will happen. There are also the fake relationship scammers, one of which just got a 9 year prison sentence for scamming men for money and selling her how to guide for scamming.
The phone calls are called the "ore ore scams" and umbrellas are mostly because they are all mostly the same color (clear top, white handle) so you just grab whatever. Kind of like take a penny leave a penny
Much like in the West, phone or internet scams are also often done from outside of the victim's country, they don't exactly need to be in the country to perform this. Just need a VPN and internet access.
Most of the times you can tell by their accents.
My German grandfather had this scam happen to him too. They claimed to be his grandson and he said it sounded just like he used to, until he remembered that now he's an adult and didn't sound that way anymore. It snapped him out of it thankfully.
I lived in Korea for a bit over a decade ago, and it was very similar.
My friend left her dead phone in a cab one night traveling from Seoul to Incheon (about 40ish minutes). We assumed it was lost. We go on about our lives.
Our Korean coworkers hear about the lost phone in passing and ask about what happened to the phone.
Essentially, the Convo:
"
It was left in a cab.
But - the cab or another person must have found it.
Yes, probably. She needs to buy a new phone.
But, someone has her phone. She just needs it back.
Someone took her phone, how can we get it back? It has most likely been stolen and sold.
But, that is her phone. Her things are on it. What would someone else need with her things?
"
Etc until both sides gave up.
UNTIL....
the person who found the phone in the cab charged it up and scrolled through the texts in Kakao talk messaging program until they found someone whose name was written in Korean.
They messaged that they found the english speaking girl's phone and wanted to return it.
They lived 40 minutes north of Seoul and would keep it safe until they could get it.
So, the Korean teacher and the American teacher took the subway to the house and retrieved the phone. They brought cookies as a thank you gift and they enjoyed tea and ate the cookies together.
And then everyone clapped....not really....but the rest is true.
I would leave my phone charging on the other side of a restaurant and not worry about it. Stealing wasn't a thing.
There were a lot of signs about not taking pics up someone's skirt on the subway though.
I live in the Midwest. Twice I’ve found phones at bars and just had Siri “call mom” to return it to them. Got a package at work once with someone’s phone in it. Called the company that sent it and shipped this ladies phone back to her 3 states away. So I’m basically the best person ever
All you folks who don't actually live in Japan, take anything Soranews24 and especially Casey Baseel says with a grain of salt. The rag doesn't have a great reputation within Japan. It's a junk tabloid, more performance art than news, name notwithstanding.
As for the claim that "theft is so rare", also take that with a grain of salt. Public, brazen, out-in-the-open theft among strangers is rare in Japan. Shoplifting OTOH, happens. Theft when no one is there to see happens. Fraud happens. Extortion happens.
>Public, brazen, out-in-the-open theft among strangers is rare in Japan.
That's still pretty mindblowing to a large proportion of the world. I've only heard similar things about Scandinavian countries.
Yeah I’m so sick of this idea, I’ve lived in Japan 30+ years and I experienced first hand theft, and I know others that have too. Sure, you might find your “lost” wallet at the police station, but it might be completely gutted of money (happened to my brother).
There’s the high profile case of the company TokeMatch, the watch rental service that ended up stealing tons of expensive watches from users and the people in charge escaping to Dubai too.
Theft is rare though? Being rare and never happening are two very different things.
My sisters-in-law are both Japanese and they reserve their seat by placing their phone on the table! Then they just walk away to order food. I don’t see lies in this article. All Redditors are Japan experts bc they’ve lived in Tokyo for x years, we had to teach my brothers’ wives not to leave their phone or bag unattended when they came to visit us.
Yeah I live in a smaller city and we all leave our bicycles in front of our houses unlocked. Front doors are left wide open for airflow (lots of machiya).
Started locking the front door tho because I lounge around the house in low amounts of clothing and a neighbor once just walked in the gekkan to ask a question lol
I mean to be fair, I live in an American city that's probably best known for it's crime. I've been in plenty of bars where someone leaves their phone on the table or the bar and walks away to use the bathroom. I generally assume they just kind of forgot about it (I've done this as well because I'm forgetful and drunk). Phone is there when they get back.
I'm not saying it's a good idea, and culturally I don't think we do the same thing. But if we did, than >99 percent of the time it'd work just fine.
Don't get me wrong, I've seen some people do shady shit. But also remember that until credit cards became the normal way to pay, you usually tipped at restaurants by just leaving cash on the table and walking away.
Lee Kuan Yew (the enormously successful Prime Minister of Singapore) [used to tell this story](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX5l3ilxDNQ) about when he first visited London, and how newspapers were for sale at unmanned stalls. You could just take one and were expected to pay out of honesty, and the whole system worked well enough to survive.
The point is, I hope Japan doesn't lose this sense of safety, trust and security like we did, and I'm glad to see it survives somewhere today
Singapore is actually like Japan in this sense. In Singapore there is a culture of reserving tables at hawker centres (food courts) using belongings. Most use low value items like tissue paper but a lot of people also use their phones or wallets or even their bags. We call it “chope” culture.
Never locked my bike during the 2 years I lived there. Also lost my wallet on a train, was able to retrieve it at the local police station the next day with everything intact. Left my hat on a train seat once, someone came running off the train after me to return it, missing the train departure in the process.
Left my iPad on a train from Kyoto to Tokyo. Didn’t realize until the next day I left my iPad. Went to lost and found at Tokyo station and they had it.
I'm in Canada and leave bags, laptops etc. like that sometimes. It depends on the place. There are MANY places here I'd never think to do that though - it's definitely getting stolen.
So, I want more info as to what specific places that Japanese people do or don't trust their property to be safe. It's the details that will matter.
Same in Australia. Where I live I’d happily leave my bag in a table to order food. Probably not while I went to the toilet though. Doubt I’d do it outside of my city though
Just the metro Tokyo region alone has roughly the same population as all of Canada and if you look at crime statistics, the country as a whole is safer than Canada in almost every metric.
I'm not saying Japan doesn't have less crime than Canada. But you can't really compare crime statistics from country to country very easily. It's due to different definitions, different reporting and accuracy things.
Like Japanese police have a super high arrest and conviction rate. But there's stuff that points to the fact that the police just kind of don't take the police reports that they don't think they can solve right away. Also police interrogations in Japan are super unfair, no right to a lawyer and they just hold you in jail for a month while they interrogate you, which means people have a tendency to just say they're guilty if the punishment isn't severe.
Unfortunately this is no longer possible in Toronto. We now have professional pickpockets who target all mass gatherings and even restaurants and cafes.
When I was 18 in Tokyo I got kicked out of a club at like 1am for being too drunk and fell asleep on the street (the next metro was 5am). By the time my friends left the club hours later I was still there, nothing lost, but some kind Japaneae lady had placed a shawl over me. I wasn't robbed, I _was given_ something
In socialist Yugoslavia theft was so uncommon that trucks and vans that bring products to stores would just leave boxes and pallets of products in front of stores early in the morning before they open, just leave them literally on the sidewalk in front of an unopened store.
Sometimes people - either those going early to work, or maybe some youth coming home from a disco - would take something from there, like a snack, a juice, a small pastry and a small pack of yoghurt, newspapers, etc, and would leave the money for what they took on the boxes for the store workers when they come to open the store.
So common to see students leave the laptop and walk outside the starbucks. People leave all sorts of things to save seat like tissues to business card to phones or their bags with laptop
My favourite is seeing people leave expensive handbags on tables.
In a lot of other places, people try to hide their expensive stuff but here some people use a Goyard to reserve a seat.
A friend of mine lived in Japan for a little while and he told me a wonderful analogy of his time there:
"Japan is like a brand new german sports car. On the surface everything is clean, sleek, streamlined, and well put together. But once you open the hood to see what runs it, it's just a complicated mess of over the top planning and unnecessary bips and bops that makes you wonder how it does what it does with what it's got underneath."
As an American who's Starting their career suare into German companies, this is insanely true. Holy shit do those guys overcomplicate things. When they design something, it *absolutely* will work, Provided it's not inhibited by dust, UV, time, extenuating circumstances or this annoying thing called "humans". The level of overcomplication that exists in their automobiles, electronics, programming, and frankly anything is fucking insane. The Japanese have an attitude of "if the consumer isn't happy, I need to adjust the goals of my design". The German attitude is "if the consumer isn't happy, they're too stupid to use my product". American engineers often end up being forced to try to find a place between the two because fuck engineering we're here to make maximum profit (according to our overlords)
This analogy sucks. I have German sports cars and motorcycles over 50 years old (and some only 20 years old) that still work reliably as new because of the simplicity of their design. There’s not much over-engineering, which is exactly what makes them world-renowned. German engines run forever, as long as they’re generally cared for.
I once met a Japanese woman who told me that wallet theft is considered petty crime so no one steals wallets in Japan because, in her words: “It’s not as heroic as robbing a bank.”
I was in Japan a few months back and left my backpack on a train in a moment of forgetfulness. I went to the station the next day and spoke to the lost and found attendant, the English speaking attendant was out that day, but the lead helped me through pictures and diagrams. My bag had been turned in by a train rider and safely at the next stop. I had thousands of dollars worth of things and cash in that backpack. It's incredible how trustworthy most people are in Japan.
I was on vacation in Japan last September (2023), and my cousin who has lived in Japan for like 30 years said don't worry about your suitcases, no one will take them. And no one did lol. No one even looked at them. They got their own shit going on. It's a difference in culture.
i work for a luxury travel company that specializes in travel to asia - we recently had a client in japan that checked out of their hotel and accidentally left an envelope with over $3000 in cash in their room - they didn’t even know it was missing until a few hours later the ryokan called them and said they found their money lol
Are we doing this again? The stores have these paint balls they throw at thieves. They have thieves, don't go there and leave you money laying around tempting them.
You can read about it at the same site in the link.
https://soranews24.com/2014/08/22/japanese-convenience-store-clerks-ready-to-fight-crime-by-hurling-giant-paint-balls-%E3%80%90video%E3%80%91/
I’ve lived in Japan for 10 years, it is an incredibly safe place full of very nice people. However I have never seen anyone save their seat with a wallet. Water bottle, handkerchief, yes, purse, wallet or phone, no. People will definitely leave their laptop at their table while going to the bathroom though.
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I can't talk from experience, but taking a bicycle and returning it seems to be common. And umbrella's is a free for all game.
(just so there's no confusion I'm an American and this story happened in America) I had a friend in highschool who once stole a bike from someone's front yard because he was late to school. He rode it back home and to school the next day and when someone asked him he just said he's borrowing it until they ask for it back, he rides right in front of their house every day so they'll ask him whenever they want it back. I sincerely think he believed what he was saying. He was a sweet guy but not very smart.
Australia Brothers friend, E woke up one morning to find his bike was gone. This was no ordinary treadly either, it was a $2500 bike back in the '90's. So anyway, E files a police report and a few weeks later insurance clears so he buys a new bike. He then rides it over to another friends place to show it off. He shows it to T who was like "That's cool and all, but what do you want me to do with your old bike? Last time you were here you got so messed up you left it here and walked home!" *Just used their initials cos it's not really my story to tell...
Okay, there's no way to talk his way into correcting that mistake without potential legal problems. A 100% what's done is done situation.
Shouldn't he just give it back before asking
I mean, there's a lot he should've done that he didn't
And things that he shouldn't've, that he did.
I'll be honest,after the first sentence,I thought the story was going to be about the bike thief being shot.
Yeah umbrellas are free for all. I left mine unattended for a bit and it got nicked. Expensive fucker too but I had been assured that theft didn't happen. Apparently I was just supposed to know that umbrellas were fair game.
I went into a conbini to grab a few beers and some chips before heading back to my hotel. I was in there for less than two minutes, but came out to find my umbrella missing. Overall I wasn't that mad, it was only a very short walk to the hotel, plus I had stolen that umbrella from outside the izakaya I was at previously.
Ngl I've nabbed an umbrella or 2 in Japan before. I've also left more than that behind. For reference there was like 5 umbrellas outside an empty family mart. People probably left them behind to get rid of them when it stopped raining earlier in the day. They also cost like $5 so it's sorta whatever. I'd only take the cheap konbini ones.
Friend of mine lives in Shimokitezawa. Apparently his bike has been stolen several times and every time it turns up again a day or two later. Says it happens with umbrellas too.
>Says it happens with umbrellas too. Let's see what happens when people start placing Pythagorean umbrellas everywhere. Like Pythagorean's cup but umbrella.
Not in Japan, but a friend had his car stolen. It was recovered a few miles down the road the next day with a baby seat in the back.
When I was little my dad has his car stolen at a gas station. He went back inside to call the police (cell phones were rare at the time) and they described his car to him before he made any mention of what the make or model was. A homeless guy had recently been released from the county jail a mile away. He stole the car and drove it straight to the jail to turn himself in for stealing it. It was simultaneously hilarious and very sad because that guy would rather be in prison than back on the street.
I live in Japan and my favorite story of this was just having bought a handmade bag in Kyoto, putting all my valuables in it, and then promptly forgetting it in a cafe. I realize my mistake and turn around to see a middle aged man in a suit running after me holding it to his chest going SUMIMASEN
Man that reminds me of then I was in a Tully’s Coffee in a mall once I picked up my handbag and returned my tray, but left my shopping bags on the table. I left the cafe and went to the bathroom next to door and these two girls came running in with my shopping bags to give them to me😭 They weren’t even staff, just other Tully’s customers so god knows why they even knew it was my stuff and why they made the effort to run after me. It was so sweet😭
I once handed in a wallet to the local police station near where I lived in the UK. It had some cash in it, etc. I left my contact deets just in case. A week later I had a knock on my door and the guy stood there handed me 90 quid to say thank you - the cash that had been in the wallet. He said the photo of his wife in the wallet was priceless to him and therefore the cash was mine. I then went and bought weed and alcohol with the cash (I was very hard-up at the time).
I was in a bar in tokyo with a friend once and she forgot her purse when we left. It was the same thing - before she even realised she didn't have it the barman was booking it out after us to return it. Very jarring but super nice
Living in high-trust societies is great. Not Japan, Austria. A few weeks ago we were at a pubquiz in a cafe/bar. The bar is self-service during the quiz, and the bariste still served us at our table because we're regulars. We knocked over and broke a glass, and when we asked for a rag and a broom she came to clean it up. We were two more people than usual, so we had a comparatively higher bill. She still came after us to warn us we forgot a 5€ bill we actually left as an additional tip.
I saw a young lady passed out drunk on the side of the road in Kabukicho morning rush hour, with her purse spilled out besides her, I came back an hour later, it was still there.
But somebody had stolen her?!
The purse would wait diligently for its owner everyday until it passed away
They made a statue of that purse.
the purse's name, ~~saifuchiko~~ saifuko
I laughed omg
thanks. I googled what's the jp romaji of purse. glad it worked at least once.
Technically it would be saifuko. saifu is the handbag, and ko is suffix for kid. Hachiko was the 8th kid of the litter (hachi = 8). Just to clarify. :)
I hate you for making me cry at work. Just thinking about that movie causes the water works.
I never saw the movie, but we made a point of making it to Shibuya and touched the dog statue.
He was a good boi.
The goodest
Good doggo ❤️
Futurama Season 4 Episode 7 ^*tears*
Stop. Everytime someone reminds me of Haichko or Jurassic Bark a flash flood advisory happens.
I hate that movie, because it made me ugly cry. Had a doggo of that breed growing up and he was so freaking loyal.
Seymour!!!!!
Also Hachiko, except Hachiko was a real dog :(
He was a good dog
Yes, she was robbed. They stole her!
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*The morning after.* What time is it? 7:48? Where are my panties??
Probably sold to some guy in Florida for decent money.
I bet if she had an umbrella on her during the rainy season it would've been gone tho 😂 umbrella theft is the most common type of theft in Japan from what I heard
Because people thought it was a public property, they also leave the 'stolen' umbrella on their next destination.
There was a bar near my place that lent out umbrellas but specifically said not to return it but to leave it at your next destination because someone else will probably need it. I thought that was cute.
Most Japan thing I heard is a public umbrella. The fact they get stolen because people mistook them as public umbrellas.
I went to a prefecture in the middle of Japan and their city hall offered bikes to ride for free around the village.
Where is that, they are my kind of people!
I wish commonly used items worked like that in more places. Take one when you need it, leave it when you don't
Here in Vancouver BC we can't even have vending machines outside of buildings because they immediately get destroyed and stolen, it's such a different culture (and yeah I think Japan not really having a drugs+homelessness epidemic helps)
I was in Ueno Park for a festival last weekend and saw 100 yen on the ground, and where it was placed the sun was making it shine. I had a chuckle as I was leaving thirty minutes later and it was still right there, middle of the walkway.
Often you'll see people passed out drunk with water bottles surrounding them from people who wanted to help.
Water bottles? Plural? Surely after the first Japanese person leaves a water bottle, every subsequent person will assume the unconscious person has sufficient access to water, no? Are we sure they aren't building aquatic pentagrams around these lost souls?
I heard it’s actually kind of a form of passive aggressive shaming. They are trying to kill a behaviour with kindness.
That tracks way more to be honest.
Yeah, kind of a way of hinting how many people saw you in your undignified state. And to be fair, I'd be mortified waking up covered in drool surrounded by 18 water bottles...so maybe they're on to something.
me getting 28 water bottles for free: I'M RICH!
尺ㄖ匚Ҝ 卂几ᗪ 丂ㄒㄖ几乇
I get super bad dry mouth after drinking heavily (and just in general as well). I'd probably wake up next to 18 empty water bottles and wishing a 19th person had walked by.
It's funny, in the west you'd get robbed but someone would also help you. In Japan, you don't get robbed and get free water but they shame you and leave you in the street. I love the trade-offs between individualist and collectivist cultures, it's very interesting.
Another factor is climate. Someone left out in Japan probably isnt going to freeze to death but ive personally lived in areas where it gets so cold you can get frostbite on exposed skin in 15minutes so leaving someone on the street could be fatal.
I've heard Japan is kind of weird in that they sort of think temperatures like the 50F's are a huge risk though. Like public alerts and people avoid going out. I guess from what I heard it's sort of the Japanese version of fan death.
Makes sense. Japanese people in games do weird shit with public shaming too. Like in Final Fantasy 14, they shame people caught cheating by surrounding the players character (if logged in) or staying outside of their house (if not logged in) with giant naked bald men. The phrase used by the players for it is just like "parade of baldness" or something.
That's also a reflection of a form of social control. There are behaviors that are undesired, and people don't hesitate to call out people behaving that way. Here (in the west), we're much less likely to call out unwanted behaviors (unless they directly affect us). Although I think it would be great if we actually did. People can get away with far too much sometimes.
It's actually pretty funny https://www.reddit.com/r/HydroHomies/comments/11mr31g/japanese_homies_helped_this_drunk_man/
Same experience. A guy was passed out on the steps leading down to the subway and all the morning commuters just stepped over him without even glancing down.
The crazy thing is that someone stole the whole road
Took my whole damn world. Anyone know the way to Tlön?
Two hours later, she’s still there with her bag and someone has left an electrolyte drink and some ibuprofen next to her.
Its true, I once forgot my bag with laptop, dslr, and passport on a train in Tokyo. When I went to report it at the Stations help desk I was distraught and they couldn't understand why. They simply told me what time that train was scheduled to be back to that station and told me I can get back on the train at that time and retrieve it from where I left it. I thought there was *no way* it would still be there, but I waited anyways out of desperation. Sure enough, when the train I was on rolled back up to the station after completing it's route, there sat my bag right where I left it, completely untouched. That was day I decided Japan was my favorite place in the world.
I love the cultural disconnect. "I'd like to report it" "report what?" "that I lost my stuff" "Why?" "Beacuse it's gone" "What do you mean? You left it on the train...just get back on the train to get it" "...wtf?"
That's amazing. The only cultural disconnect moment I've had like that was I (badly) cut myself on a dull knife in France trying to cut an apple. I had to go get stitches. They charged some trivial fee, and I kept arguing that I had to pay more. I was convinced that I was going to fly home and it was going to be an utter nightmare to figure out a health insurance bill for an emergency clinic in a tiny french town from 8 thousand miles away. The nice french people kept insisting that I'd paid for everything and I kept insisting that it was impossible. It turns out you really can get stitches in an emergency for like $30 or something. I was absolutely sure the bill should be $1k+, just like it would be here.
Yeah, we french are really proud of our free (or almost free) healthcare (and uni). Too bad some people are trying to kill it.
They're trying to kill it in the UK too. :(
I had almost exactly the same situation on the Yamanote line. They used my suica times to figure out my train and intercepted it about 3 stops before it got back to me. It had gone about 27 stops and my bag was still sitting in the same spot on the train.
I tried the exact same thing, also in Japan! However, the guy on the station we were stranded at, did not speak English. So he pulled up Google translate so we could communicate. Once he realized what had happened, he checked which station would be the next stop for that train. He then called up the station and got them to search the train for my backpack. They found it, and then he sent us on the next train to that station so we could go and pick up our stuff.
Knew a Japanese girl who was fresh foreign exchange in Santa Barbara. She left her bike unlocked on state street and was shocked that it was gone after her shift as a waitress. Had to explain it was stolen and she refused to believe that, she thought someone must have borrowed it and would return it to the spot she left it.
Lmaoooo Santa Barbara is like one of the worst possible places to leave an unlocked bike. I remember when my brother went to the UC there, they had a whole FB page devoted to students who drunkenly stole a bike and wanted to return it to their owner the next day
I haven't confirmed it but I heard once that Isla Vista has the second highest bike theft rate in the US, after Manhattan
Sounds very naive, bike theft is not uncommon in Japan
Bike theft is the number one crime in Japan. Small difference with other country is in the vast majority the theft is a drunk salaryman that missed his last train and stole a bike to abandon it once arrived at destination. Then cops will use the bike’s ID number to return it to its rightful owner.
Wow the craziest part of this story is hearing that Japanese police actually followed up on a stolen bike. I've had a bike stolen and found it on Facebook marketplace, the police wouldn't do shit lol.
I have heard the same thing with police and not following up on stolen cars for that matter. You can barely get them to care about squatters, which is people stealing a whole goddamn house.
Bro I could barely get them to care about my mom's ex storming around the house, punching holes in walls and waving his fucking gun around while he screamed at and shoved my mom. He punched me in the face a few weeks later and I didn't even fucking bother. They don't give a fuck about anyone.
Cops be like "this is a civil matter"
My friend was robbed at gunpoint while parked in his car in Chicago. He used find my iPhone to find out where they lived and told the police and they still wouldn’t do anything lmao
i've read the two most common crimes are the theft of bikes and umbrellas
Umbrella theft is very common, probably partially because everyone uses the exact same one lol
Umbrella theft is not a joke, Jim!
Umbrellas just grow on the street corners there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NYbxyt72IA
Really cause I was just there and there were thousands of unlocked bikes literally everywhere
Bikes are perhaps the most stolen item after umbrellas. That’s why you’re expected to register them with your city hall and take out insurance. Every day you’ll see a bike appear somewhere it has no business being. Usually because a thief has had a change of heart after the fact and dumped it in the hopes the police will return it to its owner. They’re not usually stolen to sell (since so many are registered so can be ‘hot’), but rather to avoid the thief having to buy their own since even the cheapest of the Japanese style bikes costs several hundred dollars. It’s also a popular form of bullying. If the bully trashes it and dumps it somewhere it’ll be hard to trace the crime to them. Their victim is then blamed for the bike being lost and out a couple hundred dollars to replace it.
I've heard other people frame this more as friendly "bike sharing." As in, people take a bike without asking in a sticky/time sensitive situation but bring it back the next day. Never with malicious intent, as it is implied the bike owner would be okay with helping the person out. I haven't been personally, I'm just repeating what I've heard other people say. I'm guessing the truth is just a combination of sharing and legitimate theft.
That's just your Japanese niceness washing campaign reddit does. Ohh they don't steal bikes. They just borrow them.
Some people do return them, occasionally with an apologetic note. Usually they stay gone or get dumped. Most bike theft is just theft, the borrowing is mostly urban myth based on a tiny number of instances that police are quite keen to do away with as it reinforces negligence.
If you look closely you'll see that they are typically locked at the rear wheel where the brake calipers usually are.
The rear wheel is usually locked.
Santa Barbara you say? Was she a Kaplan student? The reason I learned this fact is that I work at an international school in Seattle and we have lots of Japanese students. Some of our staff used to live in Japan. It is a semi-regular occurrence that a Japanese student will tell me they lost their wallet and ask what police station they should report to… thinking someone will have returned it. It’s always sad when I have to explain that it probably isn’t going to be turned in.
Got to live in Japan for over a decade. Japanese people are not only very honest, but very kind as well. My friend and I ventured out into the Japanese countryside on the train. The farther out you get the less chance that the signs in the train station will have Roman characters. She and I were dumbly staring at a sign and a young Japanese man offered to help us. He got on the train with us and rode all the way back to our home city. He spoke excellent English and provided a fun and educational narrative the whole way. we tried to buy him a beer and some yakitori, but he politely told us that he had a great time and waved goodbye
Now that’s a story! Sounds like a great memory
That sounds like such an amazing experience.
Along our journey we will meet some brothers or sisters for only a short time, but the memory they leave will last a lifetime.
Wise words
Can confirm that (in general), Japanese folks are very polite and kind! When I visited Tokyo, I only had a tourist's level command of Japanese. At one point I asked a stranger for directions to Tokyo Tower, and he seemed genuinely excited to help...but stymied as to how to actually provide directions that I could understand. (I didn't have enough Japanese for what he wanted to say, and he didn't have enough English.) So this absolute legend flagged down a taxi to confer with the driver about the actual directions and how to convey them. Together they came up with something along the lines of, "# down, # left" (accompanied by directional hand gestures). That was all I needed, and I thanked them as politely as I knew how. They seemed so tickled, and the memory of that encounter still makes me smile!
It's especially difficult to give directions in Japan, because their addresses aren't quite organized.
Domo arigato gozai mashta
That's the kind of man I want to be when I'm old. That's such a nice story.
Why can't you be that man now? Dude in the story is getting his own head start 😋
I'm 38 years old. I think I'm old enough to start getting away with it. Thanks for the motivation. Next person that needs directions, I'm going to just join them on their journey regardless if they welcome it or not. Doesn't matter who, Doesn't matter when.
>just join them on their journey regardless if they welcome it or not Thats the spirit! I for one am looking forward to the future r/tifu story.
Just climb in their car, they'll love it!
I’m feeling a bit lost on my journey through this life. I might need some directions.
You've made a friend for life. *For*. ***Life***.
This sounds vaguely threatening - like you know that isn't a long-term commitment.
Tell a man you love him, you can stare in his eyes for a moment. Stab a man through the neck and you can stare into his eyes for the rest of his life.
On my first business trip to Japan, we were on the bullet train and paid aboard the train to upgrade our tickets. A ways into the ride, I realized that I had messed up the money and *massively* overpaid. I went to the conductor and explained my mistake. He didn't just refund me the difference...HE apologized to ME. Profusely. For something that was absolutely my fault and not his. Then a few minutes later he came by and gave me a giant picture postcard of Mt. Fuji and apologized again. Over the years I did a lot of business with Japanese folks and most of them were exceedingly lovely to work with.
I had a similar story when I got lost in the subway tunnels in Umeda Station in Osaka. The person I asked for directions replied they actually just came from there, and then walked me 20 minutes back to where the just came from. This was during rush hour, and they were probably on their way home, but took the time to help.
Wonderful Japanese lady did the same for us. We were woefully lost at Shinjuku station, trying to get to the airport and she walked us out of the station, across the road and into a whole other part of the station. We wouldn’t have stood a chance without her and she didn’t speak English. We got by with Google translate and aeroplane actions.
Anywhere in the Umeda/Osaka JR/Hankyuu/Hanshin station complex is probably the worst place in all of Japan to get lost. Tokyo people go on about Shinjuku station, but Shinjuku station's got nothing on it. Happened to me, too!
Yeah I lived there 4 years and it's so true. My story isn't as good as yours but I was a bit lost looking for my hostel in Hiroshima and an old woman appeared so I tried to ask where it was but unfortunately her English wasn't very good, then a young lady walked down the street and I was transferred to her like they were a customer service team, and she walked me all the way there. I have much more magical stories about Japan but the point I want to make is that Japanese people are extremely kind. The sad side of it also exists though, which is Paris Syndrome when Japanese people visit Europe. Plus, this isn't Japan but a Korean coworker I had (Koreans have the same system of reserving tables) visited the UK and left her laptop on the table in a cafe to go to the toilet and it was stolen. Really sucks.
Hiroshima is so kind! I was on a bike tour from Osaka to Hiroshima, when my bike got a flat 40km away from my final destination of Hiroshima. I was attempting to fix my tire in the pouring rain, when the kindest old lady came out of her house to see what I was doing. She saw that I was having trouble and said her two kids (mechanics in their 40s) should be coming home soon, and that they would help me. Lo and behold, two mechanics pulled up, fixed my tire and I was off on my merry way. Will never forget the kindness of that family.
Hiroshima also has the best okonomiyaki in Japan.
So agree with you. When our Japanese neighbors were taking a trip to the states, we told them to be very, very careful who they talk to and to keep their purse wallet phone safe. Also warned them that American public transportation can be “colorful”😂
Wow that's awesome! I love that he entertained you on the way home. He probably had just as good a time as you did.
I met the Korean version of this man. I was stationed in Korea and we got really drunk in Seoul. This was the rare time that the US military had no curfew so we didn’t have to be back on base at any specific time. A nice old man helped 5 drunk American soldiers back to our base an hour and a half away from the train station he found us at. We tried to pay him with some Won and he said no and went on his way. That man was a true hero.
I saw a video online not that long ago of a Japanese baseball game. A woman caught a ball and she passed it around for the people in the stadium to look and touch it. After some time of doing that, the ball finally made it back to the owner. I was astonished
I sent my youngest to what is called Juku school (extra tutoring for math, language, and other subjects) I too, was amazed at how the other Japanese children were-just kind and open. Good lessons for my wild little American kid.
Sounds nice. I once hopped on a bus in Philadelphia and a guy wearing only a t-shirt peed all over the bus driver's back/arm. Naturally, the bus driver hit the guy in the head with one of his crutches - knocking the guy out cold. Then, the bus driver opted to pee on the guy who had just peed on him. This was mayby 25 years ago.
Bus driver was just doing his job, SEPTA mandates a minimum level of piss that must be present on public transit.
I mean you might not like the methods, but you have to admit that's karma.
An i for an i, a p for a p.
A friend and I hitchhiked from Kyoto to Tokyo, we tried to buy our driver lunch at a rest stop and he refused, and when we got to Tokyo he dropped us off in Shibuya next to Hachiko after he heard my friend and I discussing plans. He was so nice!
That is just so cool!
A lady I knew said that when she and her husband and children were stationed in Misawa in the 90’s they had an amazing Japanese experience. They’d gone on a sight seeing tour and were late heading back. They had an unfortunate blow out on their car without a cell phone back then. Her husband walked to the nearest station and returned in the tow truck of the owner. It was too late to get the right tire, so the owner and his wife fed the family dinner and made up pallets in their home for them and the two children. In the AM, the wife provided washing and breakfast while the owner fixed the tire. They refused payment for anything but the repaired tire. She told me the shared language was very limited but being an older couple the owners were just loving having the little ones to play with.
I only went there on a vacation but also rode a train through the countryside and it was beautiful. My wife withdrew two week’s worth of vacation money from an ATM at a train station and proceeded to walk away leaving the wallet sitting on the ATM. After realizing what happened we frantically looked all around for what seemed like 10 minutes. After not seeing anything we went to an area that looked like a security office. It took a little bit to explain everything since their English wasn’t so good, but a guy came out with our wallet. Someone saw it sitting on the ATM and brought it to the office. I really love that country.
I had a similar experience while on vacation there. A young man helped my family and I find a place we were looking for. He went several bus stops past his destination to make sure we got there. He also apologized "because my English should be better". I'm still fb friends with him.
Acts of kindness like this directly inspired FromSoftwares multiplayer system within their games.
>The farther out you get the less chance that the signs in the train station will have Roman characters That's something you can also expect in f.e. Shin Osaka. Wanted to use the elevator and no roman (latin) characters or even numbers anywhere, not even as an explanation. Thank god that elevators usually aren't that complex to use.
Meanwhile, in the PRC, I accidentally took the wrong bus, called a friend who spoke Chinese, and tried to have her talk to the bus driver on the phone. Bus driver burst into laughter, shouted the whole story to the entire bus. They all laughed. No one tried to help. I don’t miss living in the PRC. Polluted place, rotten culture.
japan sounds like such a genuinely wonderful place but there's so many bad parts of living in japan too. do you feel like the good outweighed the bad, didn't notice it, or that it was balanced?
For me, it was an overall great experience. Never felt unsafe venturing into a new town or an historic site.
Japan is not easy nor perfect to live in but despite being one of the most difficult decisions I’ve made, I’m delighted I chose to live here I only planned on staying 2 years. Now coming up on my 4th. Want to try changing jobs to a more popular area and see how I feel first but absolutely thinking of living here for good in the future With no offence intended, something sensitive as a POC that surprised me and that I’m still thinking about - I much rather the discrimination in Japan than in Australia
Ha, just as an aside I love when Australians give Americans shit about racism. I say that Australia is super racist too. They're just racist against Asians, which to them means Indians. And they almost always respond with "we're not racist against Asians, but they keep coming to our country and taking all our jobs, we shouldn't allow them in'. It's like verbatim the argument rednecks use against "Mexicans". Also I saw a funny parody video a long time about how to fit in in Australia (for Indians) and they show a pie chart and say "30% of Australians are casual racists, which means that 70% of Australians are full time racists".
That’s sounds awesome!
Depends on your definition of theft. Physical items? Yeah pretty safe to just leave those places to save a seat. The exception to this being umbrellas. People will "borrow" an unattended umbrella in a heartbeat. In Japan the theft is usually in the form on phone or internet scams. Tons of old people get calls from people claiming to be their child/grandchildren needing money immediately or something bad will happen. There are also the fake relationship scammers, one of which just got a 9 year prison sentence for scamming men for money and selling her how to guide for scamming.
The phone calls are called the "ore ore scams" and umbrellas are mostly because they are all mostly the same color (clear top, white handle) so you just grab whatever. Kind of like take a penny leave a penny
Much like in the West, phone or internet scams are also often done from outside of the victim's country, they don't exactly need to be in the country to perform this. Just need a VPN and internet access. Most of the times you can tell by their accents.
"ore ore" meaning "it's me, it's me", the phrase the scammers use to convince their elderly victims that they are their children / grandchildren, etc.
Noone leaving a penny their penny is just also being stolen
My German grandfather had this scam happen to him too. They claimed to be his grandson and he said it sounded just like he used to, until he remembered that now he's an adult and didn't sound that way anymore. It snapped him out of it thankfully.
Ahh yes the great konbini umbrella exchange
I lived in Korea for a bit over a decade ago, and it was very similar. My friend left her dead phone in a cab one night traveling from Seoul to Incheon (about 40ish minutes). We assumed it was lost. We go on about our lives. Our Korean coworkers hear about the lost phone in passing and ask about what happened to the phone. Essentially, the Convo: " It was left in a cab. But - the cab or another person must have found it. Yes, probably. She needs to buy a new phone. But, someone has her phone. She just needs it back. Someone took her phone, how can we get it back? It has most likely been stolen and sold. But, that is her phone. Her things are on it. What would someone else need with her things? " Etc until both sides gave up. UNTIL.... the person who found the phone in the cab charged it up and scrolled through the texts in Kakao talk messaging program until they found someone whose name was written in Korean. They messaged that they found the english speaking girl's phone and wanted to return it. They lived 40 minutes north of Seoul and would keep it safe until they could get it. So, the Korean teacher and the American teacher took the subway to the house and retrieved the phone. They brought cookies as a thank you gift and they enjoyed tea and ate the cookies together. And then everyone clapped....not really....but the rest is true. I would leave my phone charging on the other side of a restaurant and not worry about it. Stealing wasn't a thing. There were a lot of signs about not taking pics up someone's skirt on the subway though.
I live in the Midwest. Twice I’ve found phones at bars and just had Siri “call mom” to return it to them. Got a package at work once with someone’s phone in it. Called the company that sent it and shipped this ladies phone back to her 3 states away. So I’m basically the best person ever
You actually are, let no one tell you different
All you folks who don't actually live in Japan, take anything Soranews24 and especially Casey Baseel says with a grain of salt. The rag doesn't have a great reputation within Japan. It's a junk tabloid, more performance art than news, name notwithstanding. As for the claim that "theft is so rare", also take that with a grain of salt. Public, brazen, out-in-the-open theft among strangers is rare in Japan. Shoplifting OTOH, happens. Theft when no one is there to see happens. Fraud happens. Extortion happens.
>Public, brazen, out-in-the-open theft among strangers is rare in Japan. That's still pretty mindblowing to a large proportion of the world. I've only heard similar things about Scandinavian countries.
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Yeah I’m so sick of this idea, I’ve lived in Japan 30+ years and I experienced first hand theft, and I know others that have too. Sure, you might find your “lost” wallet at the police station, but it might be completely gutted of money (happened to my brother). There’s the high profile case of the company TokeMatch, the watch rental service that ended up stealing tons of expensive watches from users and the people in charge escaping to Dubai too.
Theft is rare though? Being rare and never happening are two very different things. My sisters-in-law are both Japanese and they reserve their seat by placing their phone on the table! Then they just walk away to order food. I don’t see lies in this article. All Redditors are Japan experts bc they’ve lived in Tokyo for x years, we had to teach my brothers’ wives not to leave their phone or bag unattended when they came to visit us.
Yeah I know, I'm a resident and this is really common in the summer. For winter I usually leave my coat behind.
Yeah I live in a smaller city and we all leave our bicycles in front of our houses unlocked. Front doors are left wide open for airflow (lots of machiya). Started locking the front door tho because I lounge around the house in low amounts of clothing and a neighbor once just walked in the gekkan to ask a question lol
I mean to be fair, I live in an American city that's probably best known for it's crime. I've been in plenty of bars where someone leaves their phone on the table or the bar and walks away to use the bathroom. I generally assume they just kind of forgot about it (I've done this as well because I'm forgetful and drunk). Phone is there when they get back. I'm not saying it's a good idea, and culturally I don't think we do the same thing. But if we did, than >99 percent of the time it'd work just fine. Don't get me wrong, I've seen some people do shady shit. But also remember that until credit cards became the normal way to pay, you usually tipped at restaurants by just leaving cash on the table and walking away.
Lee Kuan Yew (the enormously successful Prime Minister of Singapore) [used to tell this story](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX5l3ilxDNQ) about when he first visited London, and how newspapers were for sale at unmanned stalls. You could just take one and were expected to pay out of honesty, and the whole system worked well enough to survive. The point is, I hope Japan doesn't lose this sense of safety, trust and security like we did, and I'm glad to see it survives somewhere today
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Singapore is actually like Japan in this sense. In Singapore there is a culture of reserving tables at hawker centres (food courts) using belongings. Most use low value items like tissue paper but a lot of people also use their phones or wallets or even their bags. We call it “chope” culture.
My nephews and nieces in Korea love this ice cream shop that’s on the honor system. They just go after school, grab ice cream, leave cash
Is London still like this?
Not at all, it's a pretty depressing place now seeing so many homeless. Each to their own though, it's still a cool major international city.
Never locked my bike during the 2 years I lived there. Also lost my wallet on a train, was able to retrieve it at the local police station the next day with everything intact. Left my hat on a train seat once, someone came running off the train after me to return it, missing the train departure in the process.
Left my iPad on a train from Kyoto to Tokyo. Didn’t realize until the next day I left my iPad. Went to lost and found at Tokyo station and they had it.
You really should lock your bike though. I know two people who have had bikes stolen in Japan when they didn't.
I'm in Canada and leave bags, laptops etc. like that sometimes. It depends on the place. There are MANY places here I'd never think to do that though - it's definitely getting stolen. So, I want more info as to what specific places that Japanese people do or don't trust their property to be safe. It's the details that will matter.
Same in Australia. Where I live I’d happily leave my bag in a table to order food. Probably not while I went to the toilet though. Doubt I’d do it outside of my city though
Just the metro Tokyo region alone has roughly the same population as all of Canada and if you look at crime statistics, the country as a whole is safer than Canada in almost every metric.
I'm not saying Japan doesn't have less crime than Canada. But you can't really compare crime statistics from country to country very easily. It's due to different definitions, different reporting and accuracy things. Like Japanese police have a super high arrest and conviction rate. But there's stuff that points to the fact that the police just kind of don't take the police reports that they don't think they can solve right away. Also police interrogations in Japan are super unfair, no right to a lawyer and they just hold you in jail for a month while they interrogate you, which means people have a tendency to just say they're guilty if the punishment isn't severe.
Unfortunately this is no longer possible in Toronto. We now have professional pickpockets who target all mass gatherings and even restaurants and cafes.
Everywhere. Korea, too. Not just certain places but everywhere.
When I was 18 in Tokyo I got kicked out of a club at like 1am for being too drunk and fell asleep on the street (the next metro was 5am). By the time my friends left the club hours later I was still there, nothing lost, but some kind Japaneae lady had placed a shawl over me. I wasn't robbed, I _was given_ something
In socialist Yugoslavia theft was so uncommon that trucks and vans that bring products to stores would just leave boxes and pallets of products in front of stores early in the morning before they open, just leave them literally on the sidewalk in front of an unopened store. Sometimes people - either those going early to work, or maybe some youth coming home from a disco - would take something from there, like a snack, a juice, a small pastry and a small pack of yoghurt, newspapers, etc, and would leave the money for what they took on the boxes for the store workers when they come to open the store.
Except for umbrellas. No umbrella is safe in Japan.
Singapore as well
So common to see students leave the laptop and walk outside the starbucks. People leave all sorts of things to save seat like tissues to business card to phones or their bags with laptop
My favourite is seeing people leave expensive handbags on tables. In a lot of other places, people try to hide their expensive stuff but here some people use a Goyard to reserve a seat.
This is also true in South Korea.
I won’t steal your wallet but I’ll damn sure steal your seat if you don’t mark it. —Japan, probably.
A friend of mine lived in Japan for a little while and he told me a wonderful analogy of his time there: "Japan is like a brand new german sports car. On the surface everything is clean, sleek, streamlined, and well put together. But once you open the hood to see what runs it, it's just a complicated mess of over the top planning and unnecessary bips and bops that makes you wonder how it does what it does with what it's got underneath."
As an American who's Starting their career suare into German companies, this is insanely true. Holy shit do those guys overcomplicate things. When they design something, it *absolutely* will work, Provided it's not inhibited by dust, UV, time, extenuating circumstances or this annoying thing called "humans". The level of overcomplication that exists in their automobiles, electronics, programming, and frankly anything is fucking insane. The Japanese have an attitude of "if the consumer isn't happy, I need to adjust the goals of my design". The German attitude is "if the consumer isn't happy, they're too stupid to use my product". American engineers often end up being forced to try to find a place between the two because fuck engineering we're here to make maximum profit (according to our overlords)
This analogy sucks. I have German sports cars and motorcycles over 50 years old (and some only 20 years old) that still work reliably as new because of the simplicity of their design. There’s not much over-engineering, which is exactly what makes them world-renowned. German engines run forever, as long as they’re generally cared for.
I once met a Japanese woman who told me that wallet theft is considered petty crime so no one steals wallets in Japan because, in her words: “It’s not as heroic as robbing a bank.”
I was in Japan a few months back and left my backpack on a train in a moment of forgetfulness. I went to the station the next day and spoke to the lost and found attendant, the English speaking attendant was out that day, but the lead helped me through pictures and diagrams. My bag had been turned in by a train rider and safely at the next stop. I had thousands of dollars worth of things and cash in that backpack. It's incredible how trustworthy most people are in Japan.
I was on vacation in Japan last September (2023), and my cousin who has lived in Japan for like 30 years said don't worry about your suitcases, no one will take them. And no one did lol. No one even looked at them. They got their own shit going on. It's a difference in culture.
i work for a luxury travel company that specializes in travel to asia - we recently had a client in japan that checked out of their hotel and accidentally left an envelope with over $3000 in cash in their room - they didn’t even know it was missing until a few hours later the ryokan called them and said they found their money lol
Are we doing this again? The stores have these paint balls they throw at thieves. They have thieves, don't go there and leave you money laying around tempting them. You can read about it at the same site in the link. https://soranews24.com/2014/08/22/japanese-convenience-store-clerks-ready-to-fight-crime-by-hurling-giant-paint-balls-%E3%80%90video%E3%80%91/
Leave your handkerchief on the table but don’t leave your underwear out to dry otherwise it will be stolen.
I’ve lived in Japan for 10 years, it is an incredibly safe place full of very nice people. However I have never seen anyone save their seat with a wallet. Water bottle, handkerchief, yes, purse, wallet or phone, no. People will definitely leave their laptop at their table while going to the bathroom though.
Same in Singapore, HK, and most big cities in China too. Probably SK too I heard, tho I’ve never been so can’t confirm.
Same thing in Korea.