Last weekend we found a Channel bag with some jewels inside, which had been forgotten by someone after buying a train ticket in the machine. We took it and waited for a while to check if someone would come to pick it… but nobody arrived.
So, we wrote a note and went to the closest police station to give the bag and its valuable content to them, assuming that whoever lost it would go to the police to check if someone had found it. The japanese police stations are called Koban, and there are lots of them everywhere. They have a reduced number of policemen there (typically 3) and they do almost nothing, as criminality is not a big issue in this country.

So, when we arrived to the Koban, we immediately had three policemen attending to our explanations (although only one could understand some English). We explained him that we had found that bag, and he immediately took out a form (one day I will write about Japan and the forms) and said “I will call an interpreter”. I thought the interpreter would come physically, but fortunately she just needed to be on call. So, she said to me:

– We want to thank you for having brought the lost object to us.
– You are welcome
– We want to ask you if you want a reward for this?
– What????
– Yes, do you want a reward for the object?
No, thank you, there is no need for that.

After that, she talked to the policeman, and then again to me:

– Do you allow us to give your contact details (phone) if the owner of this object appears?
– Yes, why not?

And then, it was time for the form. This time I suggested the policeman to fill it in, as it normally takes me a long time to understand the different fields in the . After that, he gave me a copy of the form, and told me that if in 3 months I haven’t got any news from them, that would mean that the owner of the bag hadn’t appeared, and according to the Japanese Law, the bag would belong to us…
So, this was a nice experience for many reasons. I could check “in situ” that people in the kobans have nothing to do. I got also surprised by the option of asking for a reward (I found it, and if you want it back, please reward me), although I still do regret of not having answered yes to that question… Now, I would not wonder about how and who can fix the amount for the reward. And of course, I have realized that they have a perfect process to make the finder get the object if no one claims it.

I will update you in less than three months. 🙂