If you lose your mobile phone in Japan, it is quite possible that someone will find it and turn it in to the police who run a very friendly lost and found system.

But what if you’ve lost your phone while commuting 30km on a bicycle? This happened to one of Tod’s coworkers last week. First he called the police box nearest his home. They didn’t have it but they helped him compile a list of all the koban along his route so he could call each one. But after a few fruitless inquiries, he discovered that the police take the SIM card out of the phone, get its number, and report the lost phone to the mobile phone carrier.

So when you lose your phone, call your carrier. If the phone was turned in, they can tell you which police box you need to contact to get it back. What a handy thing to know.

Tod’s colleague’s phone had been found near the office in Marunouchi but was turned in at a police box in Kiba, a suburb nowhere near the office or his home. He never would have been reunited with it just by calling around to the koban on his route.