Tokyo’s Lost and Found: Where your missing umbrella and flying squirrel always find their way home

TOKYO, Nov 23 — Lost your umbrella, keys, or perhaps a flying squirrel? In Tokyo, the police are almost certainly taking meticulous care of it.

In Japan, lost items are rarely disconnected from their owners for long, even in a mega city like Tokyo — population 14 million.

“Foreign visitors are often surprised to get their things back,” said Hiroshi Fujii, a 67-year-old tour guide at Tokyo’s vast police lost-and-found centre.

“But in Japan, there’s always an expectation that we will.”

It’s a “national trait” to report items found in public places in Japan, he told AFP. “We pass down this custom of reporting things we picked up, from parents to children.”

Harumi Shoji, director of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Lost and Found Centre, speaks during an interview with AFP, surrounded by bags of lost items, at the centre in the Iidabashi area of central Tokyo August 2, 2024. — AFP pic

Around 80 staff at the police centre in Tokyo’s central Iidabashi district ensure items are well organised using a database system, its director Harumi Shoji told AFP.

Everything is tagged and sorted to hasten a return to its rightful owner.

ID cards and driving licences are most frequently lost, Shoji said.

A teddy bear amongst thousands of items — all bagged, tagged and organised based on where and when they were lost — at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Lost and Found Centre in the Iidabashi area of central Tokyo August 2, 2024. — AFP pic

Flying squirrels, iguanas

But dogs, cats and even flying squirrels and iguanas have been dropped off at police stations, where officers look after them “with great sensitivity” — consulting books, online articles and vets for advice.

More than four million items were handed in to Tokyo Metropolitan Police last year, with about 70 per cent of valuables such as wallets, phones and important documents successfully reunited with their owners.

“Even if it’s just a key, we enter details such as the mascot keychain it’s attached to,” Shoji said in a room filled with belongings, including a large Cookie Monster stuffed toy.

Soft toys, forlorn suitcases and a forest of umbrellas: Welcome to Tokyo’s vast police lost-and-found centre, where everything is meticulously tagged and sorted to hasten a return to its rightful owner. — AFP pic

Over the course of one afternoon, dozens of people came to collect or search for their lost property at the centre, which receives items left with train station staff or at small local police stations across Tokyo if they are not claimed within two weeks.

If no one turns up at the police facility within three months, the unwanted item is sold or discarded.

The number of lost items handled by the centre is increasing as Japan welcomes a record influx of tourists post-pandemic, and as gadgets become smaller, Shoji said.

Wireless earphones and hand-held fans are an increasingly frequent sight at the lost-and-found centre, which has been operating since the 1950s.

Thousands of umbrellas — all tagged and organised based on where and when they were lost — are seen in containers at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Lost and Found Centre in the Iidabashi area of central Tokyo August 2, 2024. — AFP pic

But a whopping 200 square metres (2,100 square feet) is dedicated to lost umbrellas — 300,000 of which were brought in last year, with only 3,700 of them returned, Shoji said.

“We have a designated floor for umbrellas... during the rainy season, there are so many umbrellas that the umbrella trolley is overflowing and we have to store them in two tiers.” — AFP

A pedestrian walks past a signboard giving directions (3rd down) for the nearby Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Lost and Found Centre in the Iidabashi area of central Tokyo August 2, 2024. — AFP pic