#1. Roadside Stalls

Imagine you're driving a car, the road winds between fields, passing small villages from time to time, and the terrain gently undulates. On the roadside, there's a small wooden table. On it, baskets full of apples, jars of honey, maybe even fresh berries. Such sights are quite familiar in Poland, right? In Japan, too, there are such stands where farmers from poorer villages can display the fruits of their labor by the roadside and count on sales from passersby. In Japanese, they are called "mujin hanbai." And in the word "mujin," there is a significant difference between a stall in Poland (Europe) and one in Japan.

Now imagine arriving at this same place. The table is full of fresh fruit, vegetables, honey, maybe berries, but... no one is there. The table stands, the fruit waits, the price list for each fruit is hanging... But there's no one present, no elderly lady or hard-working man, no one watching from under a canopy. "Mujin" means "unmanned."

You approach the stand. You like the apples – you take three. You check the price list – scrawled on a note attached to the table:

“林檎：250円” (“Apples: 250 yen each”)

You count out 750 yen, place it on the tray lying on the table, where a few thousand yen have already accumulated throughout the day from other passersby like you. You take three apples and return to your car. If you don’t have enough small change to give exactly 750 yen, you leave 1000 yen. Tough luck – your loss.

By the tray, there’s a note from the farmer who owns the stall:

「拙い林檎をお買い上げいただき、誠にありがとうございます。大したものではございませんが、どうぞお楽しみください。」

(Which means: "Thank you so much for purchasing my humble apples. They are nothing special, but please enjoy them.")

There’s also a place to leave your own notes. Someone, with feminine handwriting, wrote:

「ありがとう、すごく美味しそう！」

(Which means: "Thank you, they look wonderful!")

Once or twice a day, the owner of this modest stall visits the place to collect the money and restock the fruits and vegetables. They come in the morning, delivering fresh produce – maybe more apples, maybe different vegetables, depending on what they have to offer at the moment. In the evening, they collect the money from the tray and take away the remaining produce.

#2. Lost Wallet

You’re walking down the street with a Japanese friend, talking about everyday matters. Suddenly, you see a wallet lying on the sidewalk. Instinctively, you bend down to pick it up – in good faith, you intend to take it to the nearest lost-and-found office.

My friend immediately stops me. "What are you doing? Leave it, you're not supposed to do that," he says calmly but firmly. I’m surprised – why shouldn’t I return it? It’s lying there in plain sight, it’s going to be lost any minute. And you just want to take it to the police or wherever lost items are taken. Surely my Japanese friend doesn’t think we’re intending to steal the wallet?

He explains: "The person who lost that wallet will be looking for it. They’ll retrace their steps and the first thing they’ll do is look exactly here. That’s why it should stay right here, waiting for them."

You carefully place the wallet back on the sidewalk, where it will remain untouched until its owner finds it...

My Japanese friend decides to do something else. He takes out a small piece of paper and writes a short, polite message:

「お忘れ物がここにあります。ご確認ください。」

(Which means: "Your lost item is here. Please check.")

He wraps the note around a 500 yen coin. "For a subway ticket," he explains, "because they probably had to come back just to retrieve the lost item, and now they’ll be upset and out of pocket as well" (500 yen is about enough to cover a few subway stops in Tokyo).

You nod in understanding...

#3. 125 Million Dollars

On March 11, 2011, Japan was struck by one of the most tragic events in its modern history – a 9.1 magnitude earthquake that triggered a massive tsunami. The epicenter of the quake was in the northeastern part of Honshu Island, in the Tōhoku region. The tsunami waves, reaching up to 40 meters, destroyed entire cities, killing over 15,000 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless. To this day, the disaster is known as the Great East Japan Earthquake, and its effects were so devastating that they also led to the nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima power plant.

In the midst of chaos and destruction, people fought for survival. Many homes, buildings, and businesses were swept away, and the remnants that survived became witnesses to a dramatic battle against nature. Safes, wallets, and bags full of money were washed ashore on beaches and streets. It’s hard to imagine that in such conditions, when many people lost their homes and life savings, honesty could prevail over the temptation to save oneself with the "ownerless" belongings found lying on the ground. And yet, at that moment, the Japanese made some of us feel ashamed.

In the months following the disaster, safes, bags of money, jewelry, and other valuable items found in the ruins of homes and businesses were turned in to police stations. In total, over 125 million dollars in cash and hundreds of valuables were handed over. For many of the finders, who had lost everything themselves, returning these items must have been an act of immense honesty and altruism, especially when they themselves were in need of funds, in need of help.

When asked how to understand this behavior, my Japanese friend responded – "atarimae."

「それは当たり前だよ。」

(Sore wa atarimae da yo)

"It’s the obvious thing to do, of course."

#4. Those Legendary Taxi Drivers

Imagine that after a long day of sightseeing in Kyoto, you return to your hotel by taxi. You step out at the entrance, exhausted, look around the area, and then quietly head to your room. Only after an hour do you realize that you don’t have your phone with you. You begin to panic, but your Japanese friend reassures you, saying, "You’ll definitely get it back." They suggest watching something on TV while the wallet searches for its owner, so you don’t stress out.

Before the episode of the "funny" (Japanese television "humor" probably deserves a separate article someday...) TV show ends, the porter knocks on your door. With a smile, he informs you that the taxi driver has returned and is handing back your phone. The taxi driver standing behind him bows and says:

「長くお待たせしてしまい、大変申し訳ございません。」

("Nagai aida omatase shite shimatte, taihen mōshiwake gozaimasen.")

(Which means: "I’m terribly sorry for keeping you waiting so long.")

To your surprise, the taxi driver not only returned your phone but also... apologizes. Apologizes for returning it so late because he first had to serve other customers. Only after driving the previous client did he manage to return to the hotel and find the owner of the phone. You stand there, astonished – after all, you should be thanking him, but he is expressing regret as if he were the one at fault.

In Japan, it’s the norm that anyone who finds someone’s lost item feels obligated to return it. But the fact that you are grateful, while the taxi driver feels compelled to apologize for a late return, might be quite surprising to a foreigner. In this culture, it’s not the person who lost something who should feel guilty, but the one who accidentally finds it and delays its return – even if they had no control over the timing.

#5. LoJack in Japan

A few years ago, an American company, which also had an office in Kyoto, developed an innovative car location system. Something akin to LoJack, a vehicle tracking system after theft, so popular in the United States.

Even though the company created advanced and innovative technology – perfect for the Japanese market, which loves technological novelties – it turned out that sales were virtually non-existent. In Japan, car thefts are so rare that the product found no buyers. For the residents of this country, stealing someone’s car is almost unimaginable – most people simply don’t consider such a possibility.

The company quickly realized that the Japanese mentality, based on social trust and low crime rates, made the demand for such technologies nonexistent.

#7. Forgotten Shopping Bags

Imagine you’re in Shibuya, one of the most recognizable districts of Tokyo, and probably the most famous intersection in the world. This is a place that appears in countless films, music videos, and TV shows, with its iconic crossing where over a million people pass through every day. Hundreds of shops, restaurants, and cafes surround the area, and tens of thousands of people rush through every hour.

After finishing your shopping in one of the huge department stores, you catch a bus home, only to realize you’ve forgotten your bag full of gifts at the store. You’re worried – in that time, hundreds of thousands of people could have passed through the area (the size of a medium Polish city).

Yet, when you return to the spot, your bag is exactly where you left it – untouched, undisturbed, waiting for you, as if time had forgotten about it. In Japan, not only can you leave things in public places, but you can also be almost certain that you’ll find them exactly where you left them. No one would even move them a few meters (because they were in the way, for example).

The hundreds of thousands of people who passed by this bag are proof not only of social honesty but also of what it means when honesty is a universal principle rather than a praiseworthy virtue.

#8. The Mailbox

In the tiny village of Kamiyama in Tokushima Prefecture on Shikoku, an elderly woman named Sachiko found a bundle of banknotes worth 10,000 yen (about 300 złoty) on the roadside. What to do with this money? Keeping it was out of the question, it had to be returned – but to whom? The police station was far away. Sachiko did the only thing that came to her mind in this situation.

During her morning walk, she placed the bundle of banknotes into the nearest mailbox, believing that the postman, who empties the box daily, would figure out what to do and pass the money on to the police.

Soon after, the police at the station in Tokushima city received the bundle of money. The local newspaper and website published information about the find – along with a photo showing the color of the rubber band that held the banknotes together. The owner was asked to come forward and claim the lost money.

One person responded.

The owner – a middle-aged construction worker – came to collect it, having lost the money while riding his bicycle to work.

#9. Apartment Rental

Renting apartments through Airbnb in Japan has become very popular, especially in major cities like Tokyo, Kyoto, or Osaka, where tourists seek more flexible accommodation options than traditional hotels. It’s cheaper, and the quality is very good (since 2018, the rentals are also regulated by law).

Imagine renting an apartment through Airbnb for a few days in Karasuma, Kyoto. Upon arrival, instead of a formal key handover process, you find a message from the host, informing you that the key is in the mailbox or on the windowsill, and the apartment door is unlocked.

During your stay, you may notice that even after leaving the apartment, you lock the door out of habit, even though no one would have entered anyway. The host doesn’t ask you about any security measures nor does he introduce additional checking procedures.

When you leave, instead of returning the key in person, you simply leave it in the agreed spot, such as on the windowsill, as per the earlier instructions. The host thanks you via a text message and expresses hope that, despite the apartment being very modest, it didn’t cause you any inconvenience.

#10. In a Restaurant

Imagine you’re sitting in one of those incredibly expensive, traditional restaurants in the Gion district of Kyoto. After finishing your meal, when the waiter brings the bill, you notice something’s wrong. Instead of 1000 yen in change, the waiter gives you 2000 yen too much. At first, you hesitate for a moment, wondering if it’s really a mistake, but then you decide to point it out.

"Excuse me, I think you gave me too much," you say with a slight smile, showing the bill. The waiter looks at the bill for a moment, then at the change, and a look of understanding and embarrassment appears on his face.

"Oh, I’m terribly sorry! That was my mistake," he replies, bowing deeply. But you are even more surprised by his next reaction. "Please keep the extra change as an apology for my carelessness," he says, to your amazement. Even though you know it’s unnecessary, the waiter insists, believing that you deserve this gesture of gratitude.

Later, the waiter will take out his own money from his wallet and add the missing amount to the restaurant’s register to make sure everything balances out.

Conclusion

Although I promised in the title that this would be without comment – there’s just one small thing I’d like to point out.

Nothing in the world is free – there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

Social honesty has its price. We must remember that Japan is a completely different culture, they think differently there. This widespread honesty also has its darker side. Japanese society is strict and unforgiving. If someone commits theft – they will face a very harsh response. Both from society as a whole, but also from their immediate surroundings. But this goes beyond just theft. For example – an honest person works. If you’ve lost your job – it means something is wrong, you weren’t honest, maybe you didn’t work honestly.

So as long as you have a job – you work. Preferably 16 hours a day, 6 days a week – maybe then you won’t lose your job.

This strictness, however, does not stem from a lack of empathy but rather from a deeply ingrained sense of responsibility towards others. It’s a double-edged sword that creates both a safe and honest environment, as well as demands that not everyone can meet. It’s worth remembering that every society has its own values and mechanisms that shape its daily life. Japan, in this respect, offers a fascinating, though not always easy-to-understand, example.

A brief comment – so we don’t forget that everything has its price.

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 A connoisseur of Asian culture with a deep-seated appreciation for various philosophies of the world. By education, psychologist and Korean philologist. By heart, an Android developer and an ardent tech aficionado. In tranquil moments, he champions a disciplined way of life, firmly believing that steadfastness, perpetual self-enhancement, and a dedication to one's passions is a sensible path for life.

Personnal Motto:

"The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest."  - Albert Einstein (possibly)

  Mike Soray

(aka Michał Sobieraj)

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Ciechanow, Poland

dr.imyon@gmail.com

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