Japan is so safe someone has left a laptop completely unattended next to me for the last hour

    by MyManD

    20 Comments

    1. And I want to be 100% clear that I didn’t just move a seat over and take the picture. It’s dinner time at a busy mall here and the person just stood up and left and literally has not been back for the better part of an hour.

    2. Same here in Thailand. People very much abide by “it’s not their’s, why would someone else take it”.

      It’s nice to live in a society like that

    3. I’ve actually never had more things stolen from me since moving to Japan and I’ve lived in 15 different countries. About 3 different umbrellas.

    4. try it in canada and your shit will be stolen as soon as you walk away and then you’ll track it and show the police but they won’t do shit

    5. everywhereinbetween on

      lol try Singapore

      I know leaving your laptop at Starbucks is (sort of) an unspoken student thing and people also tend to do that at the work/study desks at the library (quite annoying – booking is required, people book seats and disappear off half the time to godknows, then their seats are empty but registered as booked, no one can use them)

      … the other day I saw this exact thing replicated at a (quiet) iced dessert cafe. Granted it was a self-service counter payment so there was no dine-and-dash, BUT STILL 👀 kidz. So like they purchased and paid for their items over self-service, sat down with their laptops and orders, zipped out midway (leaving their laptops and other stuff), came back again later. 

      K.

    6. My friend went to take a dump in germany and left his phone in the toilet. Went back to get it within 5 minutes and it was already gone.

    7. And you put your phone at a seat to hold it while you order your coffee at the counter. It is very nice to be somewhere like that.

    8. IdidnotFuckaCat on

      In high school, i got my 20 dollars stolen after it fell from my pocket. I saw the person pick it up and confronted them about it. They told me that they got it from washing dishes, and their mom backed them up. I was so socially awkward and spineless to push, so i walked away. Then my cousin got their phone stolen from their backpack.

      God bless America

    9. This was quite common in college in Germany ten years ago. Unattended MacBooks left in the library when people went to grab some lunch. 

      I don’t see this today anymore which is kinda sad. 

    10. I forgot my backpack with a laptop at a cafe next to the Moscone centre in SF about 10 years ago. Was surprised it was still there, was also surprised a disposal squad had not been called in.

    11. Personal story from my student days in Waseda Tokyo- Someone left their IPad in the bicycle basket at a parking spot accessible by hundreds everyday- it was still there when my classes were finished.

      We steal umbrellas but that’s that

    12. In singapore they leave their wallets and phones to save their seats at the hawker centres.

    13. Confident-Race5898 on

      As long as a room is well-surveilled and generally a safe place, you can do this. I can do this at my library; Japan isn’t special

    14. I studied in a public college, and people wouldn’t leave anything unattended, especially laptops. I then did my masters in a private college, and people would leave their laptops, phones, wallets everywhere. Not a single care in the world because they knew it wouldn’t be stolen.

    15. OnCnditonOfAnonymity on

      I sat at Starbucks, Shibuya crossing for a couple of hours and watched 50,000 people walk past a pair of Ray Ban aviators sitting atop a bollard.

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