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A comment on Why Japan is so successful at returning lost property. Parent comment

Re:Why Japan is so successful at returning lost property by tareqak on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @04:03PM (#22058535)
Why umbrellas specifically? I read the article and I enjoyed it, but the question of why umbrellas are not treated the same in terms of being returned was mentioned but not answered. Near the end of the article, there is this sentence

> “Communal property is virtually unheard of except for that many people seem to regard umbrellas as up for grabs if not properly secured.”

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Re:Why Japan is so successful at returning lost property by kstenerud on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @04:09PM (#22058606)
Because when the rain comes down, it COMES DOWN HARD, and you NEED an umbrella NOW. I started doing the same after living there a few years.

Same thing with stealing crappy bikes with flat tires from the nearest bike rack to get home when you're drunk as a skunk at 3 am.

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Re:Why Japan is so successful at returning lost property by novok on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @05:02PM (#22059251)
You can buy them everywhere for 300-1000 yen, those models are the ones that everyone uses so it isn't much of a sacrifice for everyone to buy another umbrella a few times a year.
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Re:Why Japan is so successful at returning lost property by rtpg on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @08:19PM (#22060763)
an even more basic answer is that these super cheap umbrellas that everyone buys all look kinda the same, so it's hard to track your own umbrella unless you put some sort of sticker on it.

So it's not even necessarily a concious system, just the end result of easily being confused between umbrellas.

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Re:Why Japan is so successful at returning lost property by numpad0 on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @09:19PM (#22061113)
Yeah, everyone has a moment when they notice a wrong umbrella in their hand. Could happen immediately upon pickup or could happen later.

From there your view branches into the direction of either communal property idea or an internal shame/rage/regrets. So far I consider mine a personal property.

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