Apparently there’s a whole lot of money just lying around in Japan’s capital.

Japan in the middle of its highest inflation rate in decades, with many people looking for ways to cope with increasing prices for just about everything. But while many people are figuratively tightening their belts, a lot of them seem to have a literally loose grip on their cash.

This month the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Lost and Found Center announced the statistical results of its operations for 2024, and the most jarring numbers concern the amount of money that was found lying around in the capital. Over the course of the year, responsible Tokyoites turned in a total of approximately 4.49 billion yen (US$30.54 million) in lost cash to the city’s police boxes and police stations.

That’s a ton of cash to have gotten inadvertently left behind by its owners, but with Tokyo having a residential population of some 14 million, plus commuters from neighboring prefectures and visiting tourists spending days in city, apparently it all adds up, with the largest single-instance sum of money that was found and turned in was 11.6 million yen. The grand total of 4.49 billion yen in cash was the highest yearly amount on record for the Lost and Found Center, and a 1.8-percent increase over the previous year.

So what happens to all that money? By law, lost property (including cash) that is turned in to the police in Japan is retained by the authorities for a period of three months, during which investigators post notices and attempt to locate the owner. If the owner cannot be found within those three months, the property can be claimed by the finder within the following two months, and if they don’t it then becomes the property of the prefectural government. In the case of property that is returned to its original owner, the finder is entitled to a reward equal in value to 2.5 to 20 percent of the property’s value, depending on specific circumstances, though the finder may choose to waive this reward, as well as waive their claim to property for which the original owners cannot be found.

▼ Note that waiving the claim to the cash is a separate action from waving the cash after arraying it like a luxurious fan.

With 4.49 billion yen found, it might be tempting to assume that some of that cash was left out on purpose for some sort of clandestine payoff. However, the Tokyo Lost and Found Center was actually able to return around 3.23 billion yen to its original owners, so clearly the majority of the cash wasn’t dropped by design. Approximately 570 million yen was distributed to finders and the remaining 660 million yen, for which the original owners could not be found and the finders waived their claims, has gone into Tokyo’s coffers as extra government revenue.

The Lost and Found Center hasn’t declared any definitive reason for the record-breaking amount of money that was found in Tokyo last year, but the city is one of the few places in Japan where the population is increasing, and the ongoing inbound international tourism boom means that there are more people than ever in Tokyo these days. 2024 also marked the start of a new program wherein people who find lost property can report it via an online form, and once they’ve submitted the report they receive a QR code. This code can be used to access a drop-off box at certain police boxes and police stations at any time of the day or night, making it easier than ever for conscientious individuals to turn in lost property, and may also have been a contributing factor in the all-time annual high for money found.

It’s important to remember that not only was an amazingly large amount of money found in Tokyo, so too was an amazingly large amount turned in and returned to its owners. Because of that, while announcing the statistics Tokyo Lost and Found Center chief Harumi Shoji also said “If you have lost something, we ask that you please, by all means, submitting a lost property report so that we can return your belongs to you [if they are found].” Instructions for submitting a report of lost or found property can be found in English online at the National Police Agency website here and here.

Source: FNN Prime Online via Otakomu, Sankei Shimbun, National Police Agency, Nihon Keizai Shimbun
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert image: Pakutaso
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