00:00:04 John Daub: Hello everybody! Greetings! Welcome to Tokyo. That right there is the Fukagawa police station here in Tokyo. One of the many police stations that they have in the city. And yesterday when I was live streaming in Monzen-nakacho at the Mister Donut outside of there, I dropped my iPhone case, the one that I use to protect this phone when I'm not live streaming. And this morning I realized it and I knew, wait, I better go and check.

00:00:37 John Daub: If I was in the U.S. or somewhere else, I probably wouldn't even bother. But I'm not in the U.S. I'm in Japan. I'm in Tokyo, Japan, one of the largest metropolitan cities in the entire world. And it's also one of the most honest. And I figured perhaps there's a chance I would get it back. Lo and behold, after about 25-30 minutes, I got my iPhone case back and inside was my card. This is the Sugoca card (Fukuoka-area IC card) I've been using. That has about $75 on it still. And I'll tell you about the process that it takes to get your lost and found back. If you ever lose something in Tokyo, don't worry too much because there's a chance that you might get it back.

00:01:29 John Daub: First, don't lose your stuff. It's part of your responsibility not to leave something on the train. Don't drop something. It's your personal belongings. It should be important to you. So don't lose your stuff. Just keep that in mind, especially when you're riding a train. You leave an iPad behind or an iPhone. It's happened to everybody, though.

00:01:50 John Daub: And when it does, people here in Japan have a great deal of respect. They don't do it just because they're honest. They do it because they have a respect for other people's personal property. They also feel like they put themselves in their shoes because everybody's lost something. And everybody's had something returned to the police station, which is why when I find something, I will probably either just put it on the side or I'll take it to the police station like I did now. If you take it to the police station, there is some work involved, like paperwork, but you feel for the other person.

00:02:23 John Daub: The third reason why nobody steals in Japan is because there's a good chance that somebody saw them. And if they pick up the wallet and keep it, there's a good chance that one of their neighbors saw them do it, and that guilt will follow them to the end of time. And if they get caught, that's a humiliating thing, worse here than it would be in the West. So obviously, people are fairly honest because you won't always get things back.

00:02:52 John Daub: So I went to the local police box to the place closest to where I thought I might have dropped it, which was Monzen-nakacho Station. There's a police box in there that's always busy. Sometimes these police boxes called kōban (police box), K-O-B-A-N, they are often written in Roman letters. So that even Westerners, any tourist can find it pretty easy. And it's got a red light, just like you see the police has a red light right here. The kōban have a red glowing light that you can always find these police boxes.

00:03:21 John Daub: And I walked in there and I told them that I had lost an item. Instantly, the police officers looked up and they held up a wallet. And I said, no, it's not my wallet. It was a random foreigner, some white dude. And obviously, I didn't look like him, but they still thought it was me. I had to argue with them. That's not me. I have my wallet. That's not me. So in the end, I sat down and he got out a report. And I told them my name. I told them my phone number.

00:03:53 John Daub: It's helpful if you write your name in katakana as well, because they have to write that on the report. And you have to tell them what you lost. So Google Translate, if you're not speaking Japanese, will come in very useful to you. Unless you've lost your phone. But I had a picture of the phone case because my son, Leo, is always stealing my iPhone. So Kanae is always taking pictures of him touching my iPhone. So I was able to show this is the case that I lost. And I also have an old iPhone case that looked the same, so I brought it with me.

00:04:32 John Daub: So he wrote it down, black leather, folio style iPhone case. I said inside of there was a Sugoca card, which is like a Suica card. And I showed him a picture of the Sugoca card. I say it's from the Fukuoka area. And he goes, OK. So he started to enter it into the computer. And within three minutes, he came up with a hit. And it was here at this police station, a five minute bicycle ride from where I was. So he gave me a slip of paper with the file number. I guess there was a number associated with the lost item. And I was on my way.

00:05:04 John Daub: I rode here about 10 minutes ago. It was all very quick, which just surprised me. Because everything in Japan takes a long time. And I walked in there. The hard thing is that my name is not written on anything in the case. So I had to confirm a few things. But I was lucky because on that Sugoca card, they can scan it. And the police can see the contents of where I was.

00:05:31 John Daub: So I had to rack my brain and think, what did I buy with this card? I remember I bought an iced coffee, which was in the back of my car. And I bought it in the last live stream. That started the live stream. And that was a dollar. And I told them I took the train from last time Tsukishima to... The police officer said, so you took it from Tsukishima to Ueno? I said, ah, chigaimasu, to Okachimachi. He goes, ah, seikai. Like, you got it right. And she gave me my case.

00:06:06 John Daub: So she tried to trick me. But it's pretty close. That would be a hard one. But I didn't go to Ueno. I went to Okachimachi recently. I also confirmed. I went to Roppongi on the 29th. I did a live stream there. And she confirmed that. And then in the end, I got my case back. A little bit of paperwork. Not a lot of hassle. I'd be more surprised if it didn't turn up.

00:06:30 John Daub: The hardest part was searching my house to make sure that my son Leo didn't take it and put it somewhere. But I was pretty sure I must have dropped it. And I did. Boom. Police in Japan. They're the good guys here. They're gonna be sometimes a little bit nosy.

00:06:52 John Daub: When I was leaving the Monzen-nakacho kōban, another younger police officer came up to me and he asked me, is this my wallet? And I told him, no. I think I've already established that as my wallet. This is 10 minutes later. And he goes, oh, do you have your residence card? I showed them my driver's license. So I knew it was like this kind of secret random check. I don't mind that much. So I pulled out my residence card. He's like, okay. He didn't check the background, but I guess he just wanted to see if I had it. So there's like little sneaky stuff that they might do. But if you don't have anything to worry about, you don't want to act oddly.

00:07:31 John Daub: This is the Fukagawa Keisatsusho (Fukagawa Police Station). And they're all very nice in there. But police are police. I do look suspicious. Unshaven.

00:07:46 John Daub: Have you ever lost anything in Tokyo? Have you ever lost anything traveling around Japan? Share your comments. Share your experience down below. Because I think it's pretty interesting to hear about when you lose something in Japan, do you get it back? And many times you actually do.

00:08:04 John Daub: The last time I lost something of significance, and this one was like if I didn't get it back, I'd be okay with it. But I was curious to see if they did have it. And sure enough that they did. But if you don't, if I lost a drone in 2017 when I was hitchhiking in Iwakuni, down in Yamaguchi Prefecture. And I just set it down and I forgot to pick it up again and it was gone. When I realized it, I went to the local police station and I told them what I lost and they confirmed that it was at the Iwakuni main police office. Somebody had found it and returned it. And I was in tears. Because that was a very expensive drone and there was no chance for me to buy a new one on that hitchhiking trip and I needed it for the documentary. I was glad that I got it back. I don't think I would have gotten it back if it was in another country.

00:09:05 John Daub: It's just one of these things in Japan that you really appreciate the little things that make Japan great. I know that it's not perfect because we have the entry ban, we have lots of people waiting to come in the country. A lot of things don't make a lot of sense. But there's a lot of things that do make a lot of sense to me. The safety and the respect for personal belongings and the respect for each other. The respect for privacy, which is a big deal here. People just, they're not very nosy, I guess. There's little things that you really like about Japan and there's lots of things that are annoying about Japan. But when you're in a pinch in a situation like this, this is one of the things that you have a lot more success stories than you do failures.

00:09:52 John Daub: So the lost and found is pretty interesting. Now, if the police station doesn't have it or you can't confirm it, when you lose something, the first thing you start thinking about is find ways before you go into the police station to confirm that it was yours. Meaning, if you have pictures of it, if you have receipts of something that you purchased, if you have any kind of proof that helps to expedite getting that item back to you. Because if they can't prove it, then it becomes more complicated. But I could prove it in this case to almost beyond a doubt. Like, who the heck would know that they lost a Sugoca card in Tokyo, which is very isolated to the Fukuoka region of Japan. That should have been a giveaway.

00:10:40 John Daub: There's a chance though, if it's been more than 24 hours, that the item that's lost and found is going to be sent to the main lost and found center, which is near Itabashi in central Tokyo. It's more towards Ikebukuro side of the city. This place I've been to once because I lost an item about 15 years ago and was able to get it back, of course. And it just took a lot longer to track it because it had been a couple of days. It goes to the local police stations. You catch it in time. And then after a while, it moves over towards the main lost and found.

00:11:15 John Daub: And the respect for personal belongings is so deep. You'll find umbrellas, like $1 umbrellas in lost and found. And they keep those for a set amount of time before they end up throwing that away. But for personal belongings, yeah, don't give up on it is what I'm saying. They log it and track it. If you can describe it, you can find it here. Even cash. Everybody knows this story. I think Tokyo returned like $84 million in cash to its rightful owner. They were able to describe where they lost it and how much. And I guess they give it back to you.

00:11:54 John Daub: When you do lose cash, you actually... I haven't done that before, but I've heard that you have to give 10% of it to the person who found it as a reward. There's some sort of system in place for that. Because nobody has to return cash. They do it because it's the right thing to do and there's a little bit of guilt if they didn't do it. But at the same time, I believe you give 10% of that to the person who found it.

00:12:27 John Daub: When I got my drone back, it came with an address. And I wrote that man a letter. And I said thank you to him for finding the drone. And I sent him a gift from Hokkaido. Because I was hitchhiking. When I got to the end of it from Wakkanai, I sent him a package. And I didn't hear back from him, but yeah, I believe he got it. And I'm glad that he returned it. And I'm really thankful for that.

00:13:00 John Daub: So there's my story. If you have any questions, you can leave it in the comments below. And I really do hope that if you've ever lost something, share that story with me in the comments. I feel like I'm in a pretty cool movie or something. A police car is going by. Share that with us in the comments below. See you, everybody.