Why it's almost impossible to lose things in Japan

From Kottke:

Japan's lost and found system is legendarily good — millions of items are turned into local police stations by residents every year and most of those items make their way back to their owners (unless it's a cheap umbrella).

As this short video explains, there are a few reasons why the system works so well — the importance of the "societal eye" in Japanese culture is one of them.

The Japanese concept of "hitono-me" or the "societal eye" is an important part of the process. "Our internal morals usually help us modify our behavior, but so does the 'societal eye.'" The culture prevents people from doing wrong, even without a police presence. "Japanese people care deeply about how other people view their behavior. So their attitude to lost property is tied to their image in society." The moral discipline is upheld even in the face of natural disasters. "It's often the case in Japan that when disasters happen, crime doesn't go up. The only exception was the Fukushima disaster when we had cases of crime. So I think that the power of people's eyes around us is far greater than the power of public authority."

This article goes into more detail about why Japan's lost and found system works so well.

The comments on YouTube are full of people describing their experience w/ the lost and found system, many by foreigners who are stunned at the honesty. Here's one:

This is really true. I lost my bag that had all our passports, laptops, money... everything. Somehow they managed to track it down 200km away in Nagoya and bring it to me the next morning in Takayama. I offered to give them something as a token of my gratitude but they didn't accept because this is considered normal in their country. Absolutely amazing.