The National Police Agency is in the process of developing a database covering the whole archipelago to further improve system management.
by Philippe Pons (Tokyo , correspondent)
If you are losing your wallet, smartphone, umbrella or something else in Japan, you are likely to find. To further improve the management of the lost object system, the National Police Agency is in the process of developing a database covering the entire archipelago – so far research has been done on the scale of each department. Gathering the information on the depositions of lost objects at the national level, this new tool will allow you to locate in a few minutes if it has been found.
For example, a resident of Hokkaido (north of the archipelago) who realizes on his return from Okinawa (at the other end of the country) that his portfolio may quickly know S ‘ It was found and how to recover it. Tested in ten departments from the start of the next fiscal year (April 2023), the system will be extended to the whole country in the next five years.
In Tokyo, each year, four million lost objects are found and deposited in the police and nearly thirty million across the archipelago. Value or not objects, identity cards, credit cards, driving license, smartphones, handbags, wallets or envelopes sometimes containing plump sums … are for three quarters returned to their owner. In 2003, a study by the University of Michigan comparing the number of portfolios recovered by their owner in New York and Tokyo already reported 10 % in the first case and 80 % in the second. Today, according to the service of lost objects in the Japanese capital, 83 % of mobile phones and 65 % of portfolios are found – often the same day.
The shelving of the lost objects building, located in the central boron of Bunkyo-Ku, are overloaded with objects in an unusual neighborhood that would have delighted the surrealists. All are duly labeled and some placed in a canvas bag. There is everything: from the most anticipated to those who are less so (teddy bear, shoe pairs, musical instruments, etc.) stored according to the place where they were found and their nature. The puzzle for employees, these are the umbrellas hanged in tight ranks in a special room: 350,000 in number, they represent 8 % of the items found but only 1 % is claimed …
Mixing and Integrity
If after three months, the owner of the lost object did not appear, he is offered to the person who found him. In the event of refusal, it will be sold by the municipality to a company specializing in second -hand trade.
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