What to do if you forget your camera or other belongings on the Shinkansen

We get an unexpected lesson in bullet train property retrieval procedures.

“Ahhh, that was fun!” said our Japanese-language reporter Natsuno Futon, sitting down at her desk the morning after coming back from a research trip for her upcoming project. As she fired up her PC and got ready to start putting the article together, she grabbed her backpack and reached in to pull out her camera, so that she could transfer the photos she’d taken while in the field.

And it was only then that she realized she’d lost her camera.

Yes, Natsuno’s fancy new mirrorless camera, which she’d just bought the other day and was so excited to get to use, was gone, and since its list of features doesn’t include an autonomous free-roaming mode, that means that she’d left it someplace. Thinking back, she clearly remembered using during her Shinkansen ride home, but couldn’t recall touching it again after that, meaning the most likely scenario was that she’d forgotten to stick it back in her backpack before she got off the bullet train.

Now that she was pretty sure what had happened, the next step was to figure out how to get her camera back. Generally, there are two places you want to report your lost property to: the police, and whoever manages the facility or location where you think you lost it. For the police, Japan’s National Police Agency website has a list of links to prefectural police lost and found departments, in English here and Japanese here. There’s also additional information about the process, in English, on their website here and here.

Since Natsuno had gotten off the Shinkansen at Tokyo Station, she filled out a report with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, following the link from the NPA page and providing information about what she’d lost and where/when she thought she’d lost it.

Next, Natsuno needed to contact JR/Japan Railway Company, the Shinkansen operator. However, here’s something important to remember: while most JR lines in the Tokyo area are operated by JR East/East Japan Railway Company, the Tokkaido Shinkansen, the Shinkansen line which connects Tokyo with Kyoto and Osaka, is an exception. The whole Tokkaido Shinkansen is administered by JR Central/Central Japan Railway Company (also known as JR Tokai), so they’re who you need to contact about lost property on that part of the bullet train network, and their lost property forms can be found in English here and in Japanese here. Meanwhile JR East’s English guidance page for passengers with lost items can be found here, JR West’s here, and JR Hokkaido’s here. JR Kyushu doesn’t appear to have an English lost and found page, but its Japanese-language page is here and directs users to its Line chat.

Natsuno filled out and submitted her report to JR Central, and about three hours later, she got a politely worded email response regretfully informing her that, at the present time, her camera had not been found. However, it did leave a sliver of hope, telling her that they would continue looking for it and contact her if it turned up. As Natsuno kept her fingers firmly crossed, she took solace remembering the time she’d found a child’s bag that had been dropped on the sidewalk in front of an elementary school, and turned it in to office. She thought back about the time she’d turned in a 100-yen coin someone had left behind at a coin locker, apparently not realizing they’d get their money back when they returned the key. She even reminisced about the time she’d found someone’s grocery shopping list wedged between two books on a library shelf, and had turned that in to the staff. After doing so many good deeds herself, surely Natsuno had built up enough karma to be rewarded the same way, right?

And sure enough, later that day Natsuno got a second email from JR Central, this one telling her that the camera had been found!

JR Central can mail recovered property back to owners, with the owner responsible for paying shipping fees on delivery. They also have a lost and found office at Tokyo Station, though, located outside the ticket gates of the Yaesu-chuo entrance, so Natsuno opted to pick it up there. You’ll need to bring some form of photo ID with you, and you’ll also need to provide a six-digit confirmation code that JR Central will provide you with when they contact you to tell you they’ve found your stuff.

After waiting for the staff at the counter to reunite someone else with a bag that they’d left on the Shinkansen, it was Natsuno’s turn. After showing her ID, giving her confirmation code, and filling out and signing some paperwork, Natsuno and her camera (still inside its spiffy carrying case) were at last together again!

So while it’s never a good thing to realize you got off the Shinkansen with fewer items than you got on with, don’t panic if it happens to you.

Photos ©SoraNews24
Screenshot: National Police Agency
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