HONESTYby: Robea Portia S. Ramos, RN

素直な (su na o na) is Japanese for 'honest' meaning 'frank, outright' (in adjective form). 誠実な (sei ji tsu na) is Japanese for 'honest' meaning 'sincere, truthful'. 素顔な (su ga o na) also can be used for 'honest' meaning literally 'with an unmasked face, wholehearted, frank'.

In Japan there is law — Article 28, paragraph I of the lost property law — that says the finder of a lost object should receive between 5 percent and 20 percent of the value of the object. At lost an found's if no one claims the object after 6 months and 14 days its finders keepers.

● If you loose something in Japan there is good chance you'll get it back. If someone finds your wallet or purse there is a good chance they will check out your address on your driver's license and personally deliver it to you with all the cash and credit cards inside.

● If you lose your subway or train ticket, train station attendants will generally take your word and let you out of the station without any problem. In some cases, if you are short of cash and need to buy a train ticket to get home, you can borrow money from a policeman or a train station attendant. Most Japanese who do this dutifully pay back the money the next day.

● If someone finds your wallet or purse there is a good chance they will check out your address on your driver's license and personally deliver it to you with all the cash and credit cards inside.

● One time my wife lost her wallet and the person who found it tracked her down using our her video rental card. Keys and jackets that are found in parks and along sidewalks are hung from a fence or bush so the person who lost them can find them the next time they pass the same way.

● In 2003 a University of Michigan Law School professor conducted what he called a comparative study on recovering lost property in the United States and Japan. The professor, Mark West, left 20 wallets on the street in Tokyo and 20 in New York, each containing the equivalent of $20. In New York, he said, six wallets were returned with the cash intact and two were brought back empty. In Tokyo, finders returned 17 of 20 wallets, all with the cash intact, and all but one waived the right to claim the money if the owner wasn't found.” "There's no evidence Japanese people have extreme norms of honesty," West recently wrote in an email about his 2003 study. "It's partly cultural training, but mostly the law urges people to hand in lost property to the police."

● Failure to return a found wallet can result in hours of interrogation at best, and up to 10 years in prison at worst.

● Police presence. Japan has an active and visible police force of nearly 300,000 officers across the country. Cops walk their beats and chat up local residents and shopkeepers. Police are posted at ubiquitous kobans, police boxes manned by one or two officers, and in cities there's almost always a koban within walking distance of another koban.

● Organized crime. Police aren't the only ones on patrol since the earthquake hit. Members of the Yakuza, Japan's organized crime syndicate, have also been enforcing order. All three major crime groups—the Yamaguchi-gumi, the Sumiyoshi-kai, and the Inagawa-kai—have "compiled squads to patrol the streets of their turf and keep an eye out to make sure looting and robbery doesn't occur,"

References:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2011/03/stop_thief_thank_you.html

http://factsanddetails.com/japan.php?itemid=642&catid=18#15

http://www.dannychoo.com/post/en/26391/Why+do+you+like+Japan.html