How to find lost items in Japan? If you lost something in Japan, don’t worry! the chances are good that you’ll get it back. Thanks to the honesty of people in Japan and the efficiency of handling lost items forwarded to train stations and police station. Although you need to follow a few procedures before reuniting with your lost item, the procedures are very simple. In this article, you can find the procedures that you must follow and do when you lost an item in Japan.

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Content Outline

What to do & Where to go?
How to Report Lost Items?
How to Fill Out a Lost Property Report Form?
How to Claim Lost Items?
Lost & Found Centers at Major Stations
Lost & Found Centers at Local Police Station

Related Links:

Lost Property Report Form Download

How to Find Lost Items in Japan?

What to do & Where to go?

Go to the nearest train station / police station where you probably lost the item.

Train Station’s Lost and Found Center

Handling lost items found inside train station premises is a serious task for the station staffs. When a lost item is collected by the station staff, each item gets a tag with a bar code and descriptive information such as brand, name, color and any details that can help in identifying the item. The lost items are then sorted and shelved by category: wallets, IDs, bags, clothing, umbrella, eyeglasses, etc.

Lost items are kept for a day at the station where it is found and then after a day it is brought to the Lost and Found Center where the items are kept for roughly four days before transferring to the police station.

Lost Items at Police Stations

Under Japan’s Lost Property Act, lost items must be handed over to the police within seven days. Unclaimed lost items from train station’s Lost and Found Center are transferred to the police stations after 3-4 days. The items are then kept for 3 months, unclaimed lost items are discarded by the police after 3 months.

How to report lost items?

If you failed to find or report your lost items for more than 4 days or a week, your chance of finding your item is at the police station. Head over to the nearest police station that you can go to, file a report of a lost item.

To file a report for lost items you need to fill out a Lost Property Report form, luckily the form can be downloaded online. You can fill out the Lost Property Report form before you go to the police station.

How to fill out a Lost Property Report form?

The first step that you can do is to head directly to the nearest police station near you if you cannot speak Japanese, you can download the English translated Lost Property Report form. You can fill out the form before heading to the police station.

Download URL Link:
https://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.jp/multilingual/english/finding_services/lost_and_found/forms.html

Information such as your name, address and contact number are needed on the form while lost item information such as date and time of loss, the location of loss, property name and detailed property description are highly required to successfully locate your item. An important reminder, the Lost Property Report form cannot be sent through email, the form must be submitted in person at the police station.

Image captured from Tokyo Metropolitan Government -Forms

How to Claim Lost Items?

Required Documentation to claim a lost item:

Valid identification (e.g., Driver’s license, health insurance card, passport or residence card ID)
Written Notice if notified in writing
Lost Property Report Number that was given when you filed a lost property report.
Letter of Authorization from the owner if someone else is to pick up the item (A family member living with the owner does not need to be authorized in writing except when claiming mobile phones).

Download Authorization Form:
https://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.jp/multilingual/english/finding_services/lost_and_found/forms.html

If you’ve been contacted by the police or the Lost and Found Center make sure to go to the correct station with the required documents as stated above.