One of my favorite aspects of living in Japan is that it’s a really honest country. There are many examples of this, like the American friend of mine who managed to lose his wallet three times in three different parts of the country, and all three times it was returned to him with the cash still inside. While I was in Tokyo earlier this week I went drinking with a friend from Italy in a bar. At closing time a member of the bar staff was counting the day’s earnings a few feet from us, laying out the bills on the counter as she went. She needed something from the other side of the room so she walked over to get it, leaving the equivalent of perhaps US$1,000 in cash on the counter near us. My friend and I looked at each other with amusement, since this isn’t something you’d be likely to see in the U.S. or Italy, where bar staff would presumably not trust their customers to refrain from grabbing a few bills left out like that. Having a country full of honest people around you definitely seems contagious. Once I happened to come across a drink vending machine that had not been closed properly, so that the front was open, allowing free access to the cans inside. Back in my days at university in San Diego I might have been tempted to help myself to some free drinks, but after living in Japan, I knew the only I could do was seek out the owner of the vending machine and let them know of the problem.
Japan is an extremely honest country.
