Call me clumsy… but I’ve lost my wallet 3 times in Japan… It happens… you walk around a lot..things go in and out of your bag..it’s bound to happen.
However, each time I lost it, it was not only returned but had ALL THE CASH! This would happen ONLY in Japan!
Mind you that I’d carry about 30,000yen at minimum ($300USD) You live in Japan long enough, you know…that you ALWAYS need to have cash!
In either case, this is possibly my favorite attribute to why Japanese people are so great! They are so considerate. In America, the best you could hope for…in the case of a lost wallet is…is your empty wallet with all your ID’s and credit cards. Not in Japan..my experience has been phenomenal. If it was at school I got it in the lost and found. College students are poor…I would not have been surprised to find my money missing.
The other occasions I lost my wallet, I was called by the cops. They found like bank card which had my cellphone number on it.(talk about service!) They called to inform me where it was, and I was able to pick it up within a couple hours of loosing it. Luckily I had some change for the train…or it would have been yabai…(no good)
So in Japan here is the protocol for receiving all your money back! This is not mentioned in textbooks or anything of that sort. So yes…japanese people are considerate…but it is also assumed that you will be grateful…and thus be osewaninatta(in debted to).
Rule of thumb is about 20-30% of the cash that was in the wallet. Wherever your wallet was returned to, they will often leave contact information…it is up to you to contact them and give them thank you money.
- Lose wallet
- Get wallet back with all the cash
- Give Thanks in the form of 20-30% of wallet content
you got it? and it doesn’t hurt to ask a Japanese friend for help on this matter.
