Forgot one of my bag today at Keisei Ueno station. as soon as I realized I immediately went back to the spot but it was gone, they found in on the train, but all of my money and headphone were gone.
Went and filed a police report, an hour later the station staff contacted me that they have the Footage of the culprit taking my bag on Camera
I already gave up on the money but still hope something might happen, went to the kouban with the station staff once again and the police replied with
“Even if we manage to find this culprit, what will we do then ? He could easily said your stuffs was his all along, we can’t do anything”
What kind of attitude is this ? Even with the footage you still won’t do anything at all ? What’s the point of police then ?
Thank you for the station staff for caring at least, wow
by kao24429774
31 comments
It’s always interesting to see how people react when they realize that the police are 99% just theatre, and that society is held together by norms and customs and culture, not by enforceable laws. The police, effectively, does almost nothing.
Go to a police station, not a koban
These are just Lazy Cops. Go to a real police station and file a real report, be an ass about it, demand the footage..but realistically what are they gonna do? They don’t have a database of every Japanese person’s face that they can scan to match the security video from the station to find the guy who stole your bag; hell they can’t even do that to find murder suspects…
How would they find the culprit though? An expensive manhunt? Aren’t you the one who left your bag somewhere and walked away?
Ueno things
Damn, police always useless wherever you are.
those cops are waiting for incident to happen so they can start applying their useless powder searching finger prints other than that i dont think they understand the basic responsiblies of having to stop a crime before it occurs. they rather be searching for lost bycycles,
The police cannot immediately identify who took your bag they have to review the tapes and even then if the suspect did not register their pasmo or suica it might be nearly impossible to find out who they are unless they keep doing it and are finally caught.
First visit any nearby reception counter or office to ask them if they have your bag. With luck the person who took your bag might just want to deposit them at any nearby office as 忘れ物 meaning lost & found item.
Otherwise file a report at the police station with the description of your bag & items as well as your contact number. At this point you can only hope someone will call you.
I once thought I lost my passport at Nagasaki station toilet, went back to look around but can’t find it. Had to visit the station counter then direct me to the visitor counter then direct me to the nearby department store counter then finally they do have it. Omg almost gave me a heart attack then.
Japan is probably the few countries that average people will just return lost items as their culture. Of course there are also bad eggs around but you have to be careful and alert for your items & learning to speak a bit Japanese always help.
Kobans are basically direction givers. Dont waste time
That 99% conviction rate isn’t gonna just write itself you know. /s
In all seriousness though, cops here are completely useless if they have to do actual work to solve a petty crime. Finding a random dude is needle in haystack stuff even with video evidence if dude was at least smart enough to do crime whilst using an anonymous Suica.
Everyone telling you to go to a police station hasn’t had something stolen from them.
I had my bag stolen, my wallet, passport & ¥40,000 inside. I went to the koban and police. Koban didn’t do anything and police looked at the security camera, saw the person who took my bag and proceeded to also do nothing.
Not saying this applies in this case, but ‘no criming’ and/or failure by officers to report crimes has been a bit of an issue in Japan. Helps keep crime stats low and conviction rates high. There’s been some push to try and motivate change at an institutional level, but it’s been largely dismissed from within as the NPA enjoys a huge amount of autonomy in terms of how it governs itself. The last thing I remember seeing was a half-arsed awareness campaign aimed at Koban officers.
Thank you station man
Fun fact, if something is illegal and there is a fine or a penalty to counter it, it will not be a deterrant.
How can I say it? The fact a justice system exist.
Long time ago (2012) in Ginza someone took my briefcase and I had not only my wallet in it, but other meaningful belongings, went to tell police, they acted like nothing. I even showed them the street where it happened and I pointed that there were security cameras near by, the officer just mumbled something to himself and walked away. Zero search, 0 effort.
> What’s the point of police then ?
Intimidation, oppression, and protecting the wealthy.
I’ll tell you my personal feelings after having visited two dozens countries on work or travel: Our Japan police is absolutely worthless in law & order. So much so, that unless *They* feel pretty confident about doing something they’ll totally drop it – and it includes very serious cases like sexual assault as well. Its very easy for them to shrug their shoulder, make a diary entry and do absolutely nothing.
A personal anecdote: Our company came to know a certain individual/firm was into white collar crime, and into illegal money transfers & tax evasions. We tipped with very specific details about it to Japan Police economic crimes division. Their paperwork was started after the incidents already finished. what is even the point of being proactive when nothing matters to them.
You see low crime here because people conduct themselves well, not because enforcement is great
Go to police station, make an official report. If you go to koban, they will try to brush it off because they have performance target.
Here i thought the people smiling in your photo were the culprits lol. They just decided to pose spontaneously?
You can file compliant https://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/anket/opinion.html
https://www.shinginza.com/db/00883.html
Also from what I heard bring lawyer works well
Around this time in 2022, I left my bag at a restaurant in Akasaka and went back an hour later to find out it was missing. I went to the Koban by the station, and they sent me to the police station just up the street. I reported the bag stolen because my iPhone had tracked my Airpods (that were in the bag) all the way out to Kawagoe. After all, the contents of my bag can’t board trains and travel all the way out of town without some human being’s help. The police refused to investigate, stating that without camera footage of somebody taking my bag they have no evidence that the bag was stolen. I told them they may not have direct evidence it was stolen, but they have circumstantial evidence. They still declined to investigate. I even went out to the Kawagoe police station the next day to try and convince them to knock on doors in the apartment complex that my iPhone had tracked the Airpods to. They declined stating that would bother the other residents. This was very frustrating. The station staff did find my missing bag (without my Airpods and my Rayban sunglasses), which I was able to retrieve like a week later.
It sounds like from your experience that even if they did have camera footage, they still wouldn’t have investigated lol
I left a bag full of food on a train at night, when I got to my place I realized I left it on the train that already stopped running for the night. The next day, went to the main station on the line and they had my bag at the office and nothing was missing.
What is going on in JP these days?
I’ve seen stealers get their shit rocked by random passersby
That’s fun. Stop expecting police.
They just mean that they don’t have footage that he took anything so he can say the money and headphones are his, so it’s his word against his and you’re just not going to win.
You got to understand Japanese are trusted here over foreigners in 90% of the cases.
You’re in Japan now. Japanese surely don’t steal or coming petty crimes so better start believing in this and get on with your life.
You left your bag. Someone else took it. Next time don’t leave your bag and assume the world revolves around you.
There’s probably someone there doing petty crimes to live off in luxury.
Only evidence is him taking your bag, you can say that you had ¥2 million in it but without proof it was in there it’s just your word against theirs.
They got the bag and most of your stuff back.
Was it a Japanese that took it or someone foreign?
What did you expect the police to do? How would they be finding the person that stole from you? Do all you people really think this is a Tokyo police problem? Try forgetting your bag in any major city and see how it goes.
>What’s stopping people from stealing everything if there’s 0 consequences ?
Not knowing that there’s actually zero consequences. Once enough people realize that Japan is mostly operated on bluffs then Pandora’s box will be opened.