TOKYO (TR) – The amount of lost cash turned over to police stations in the capital in 2018 surged by 2.4 percent to a record 3.84 billion yen, the third straight year the figure has increased, reports Kyodo News (Mar. 2).
According to the Lost and Found Center of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, about 2.82 billion yen of that amount was returned to the rightful owners.
Meanwhile, around 500 million yen of the not-claimed amount went to the finders. The remaining 560 million yen has been set aside for use by the government, the center said.
The largest amount handed over at once was 25.4 million yen, which was found inside a building being demolished.
The number of lost articles (around 4.14 million) also reached a record high, surging 4.6 percent over the year before. The majority of these items (about 752,000) included such documents as employee identification and insurance cards. But railway passes, clothes and shoes also were brought in to stations in large numbers.
Regarding the increase in lost items, a representative of the center said, “There are a lot of people who become distracted by their smartphones and mobile game machines, causing them to be not aware that they’ve dropped things.”
