It can happen to Americans as well, as evidenced by an Apple engineer leaving an iPhone prototype at a bar after his birthday.

> "I underestimated how good German beer is," he typed into the next-generation iPhone 4

I don't know why you bring a USB stick with half a million people's data with you to the bar. Why is that even leaving the office?

I bring this up not to talk about differences between Americans and Japanese (boring, I think they are probably exagerated), but becuase these are different "threat models". You handle the "USB stick with company data" on it "threat" by training people... not to just stick sensitive data in their pocket as they go about their business? It should be on a USB stick for as little time as possible and that USB stick should be treated like it's worth a fortune (because it is). There's no reason you should be carrying that thing with you to the bar in the first place.

The iPhone case... eh, if you ask people to carry a device along with them in their daily lives, it's inevitable that someone will forget one someplace at some point. Maybe some kind of proximity alarm that beeps if you walk away from it?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_maid_attack

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_(sociological_concept)

But if Apple actually wanted media outlets to cover it, having law enforcement seize and search the property of the editor that broke the story, and then banning the media outlet that broke it from WWDC... doesn't seem like the way to encourage anyone to cover it next time there's a leak, if you're actually hoping for coverage of secretly orchestrated leaks. https://www.pcmag.com/archive/gizmodo-banned-from-wwdc-25149...

For the iPhone 4? Absolutely not, the only other model which changed iPhone as much as the 4 was the X, Steve was still alive for the 4 and there is absolutely no way he would have approved just leaving it in a bar for hype.

Steve Jobs wanted to be the person who showed that to the world. Remember the first MacBook Air? Steve lived for that moment.

"...More than 120 USB memory sticks, some containing secret information, have been lost or stolen from the Ministry of Defence since 2004, it was reported earlier this year....Some 26 of those disappeared this year == including three which contained information classified as “secret”, and 19 which were “restricted”...."

"UK Ministry of Defense Loses Memory Stick with Military Secrets" (2008): https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/09/uk_ministry_o...

[1] https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/apple-loses-another-...

> The company explained that the employee had drinks after work and later fell asleep on the street, but when he woke up he realized that he had lost the bag containing the USB.

My premise was going to be that perhaps this isn't the company you'd trust with the residents' subsidies but clearly I misunderstand the cultural aspect to this story. The other thing I didn't get is that the employee who "lost" the bag filed a police report for theft. If you're passed-out-drunk, how would you even know it was a theft?

Edit: An eye opening video on how well this works https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/9999897/

Fall asleep thinking you are carrying bag. Wake up when slightly less drunk. No find bag. Freak out. Rush to report bag as stolen.

Later go back the all the bars in town (forgot where you went), and find the one where you left your bag behind.