What is the most Japanese thing ever?
471 sats \ 7 comments \ @HowardisMe 27 Sep 2023 meta
My friend and I were walking down a street when I noticed a 1 yen coin on the sidewalk. I pointed at it and picked it up thinking it was a lucky find.
Three steps later my friend stopped. She said she’d prefer to put it back, and explained how in Japan they believe that when someone loses something it’s possible they will come back looking for it, so nobody takes anything that doesn’t belong to them. Not even a cent someone dropped on the street.
I felt embarrassed and immediately put it back.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Dash_1971 27 Sep 2023
"nobody takes anything that doesn't belong to them" is quite the stretch. It's true that people don't tend to steal and that things dropped on the street are often treated as though they should be returned to the rightful owner but that is not 100% the case. Like in the US there are "good" people and "bad". Also like in the US there are those who are "good" when others are looking and maybe not so "good" otherwise. Also I have seen wallets etc. handed to the police in the west so it's not a uniquely Japanese thing, although maybe the likelihood is indeed higher in Japan.
Also, the cost benefit of 1jpy vs having the chance to impress a friend is quite low. It would be interesting to see how your friend would react to seeing a 10,000jpy note on an empty street walking home one night when nobody was looking. Maybe she'd "leave it for the rightful owner to come back and get it". But maybe not. Different cost benefit analysis in that case.
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