Whenever travelers are asked to describe Japan, some of the common answers include the words “safe,” “honest,” “clean,” and “quiet.” If you’ve traveled to Japan, you could probably attest that these observations are often true. Moreover, Japan has been known to the world for having a low crime rate. So, when a Canadian-born US-based programmer visited the country, he thought of doing a bit of a social experiment.
Godfrey Chan (@chancancode) came to Japan to attend RubyKaigi, which is a conference for Ruby programmers. He left 200 yen (about PhP100) at the lobby of the venue of the conference, which was in Sendai International Center, Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. He left the coins near an artwork, expecting that someone will take them any time.
To his shock, his 200 yen turned to 300 yen (about PhP 150) when he returned the following day.
People say Japan is a very safe country. To put that to the test, I left ¥200 in one of the most visible spots at the #rubykaigi venue yesterday.
Now there is ¥300.
— Godfrey Chan (@chancancode) June 2, 2018
His amazing discovery went viral, getting 11K+ likes and 8K+ retweets.
He expressed his amazement with a funny Doraemon tweet.
?…?…? pic.twitter.com/oO51acmeuF
— Godfrey Chan (@chancancode) June 2, 2018
He also asked for help because he didn’t expect that this would be the result.
this extra ¥100 is completely throwing off my plan.. what do I do now? #sendhalp #rubykaigi
— Godfrey Chan (@chancancode) June 2, 2018
One Twitter user explained the possible reason for this.
Well…It’s a Japanese faith.
Japanese think money offered to Japanese God when money is put near a objet d’art.— ｲｼｴｲﾆ (@maskedrider_jin) June 5, 2018
While others shared stories about honesty in Japan.
When visiting japan, I was on my way to the train station after leaving the airport and had managed, after leaving the money changer, to leave my passport at the ticket terminal. As I was on my way to the train an employee there frantically ran after me with it to return it.
— FroMonk (@FroMonk) June 4, 2018
Friend visited Jp for a photo shoot. Landed at 1pm went directly to shoot until 12 AM. One of the last trains and fell asleep, woke up to realize it was his stop and walked off the train leaving $10k of gear. Called station 30 min later when he realized it. Got it back next AM.
— Mikey~ CrackPr0n (@PyronIkari) June 4, 2018
1996 first time in Japan, left my wallet on a public phone at the station with ¥100,000 in it, 2 hours later returned to the station thinking it be gone, but nope still there and nothing was taken. In Australia would have gone as soon as my back was turned!
— 紫暮くん (@STatsushige) June 5, 2018
Lost my wallet, with more than 100,000 yen (at the time, well over $1,000+) on a train. Got the wallet with all the money and untouched credit cards back 8 hrs later.
— Alexis Alvarez (@AlexisinNYC) June 3, 2018
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