Rewarding honesty.

• Position: Japan - Tokyo Metropolitan Police Lost and Found Center - Brief Article

The Japanese are serious about their honesty. Consider the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Lost and Found Center. In 2002, people found and brought to the center a total of $23 million in cash, 72 percent of which was returned to the owners, in a four-story warehouse, hundreds of thousands of lost objects (including 330,000 umbrellas collected in 2002 alone) are meticulously catalogued. The lost-and-found property system in Japan dates to a code written in the year 718. Back then, lost goods, animals, and even servants had to be handed over if found. Under current...