During my first time in Tokyo while I was wandering around the streets, I noticed something odd that I’ve never seen in any other part of the world: Umbrella lockers.
Most foreigners think of Japan as a place with extremely low crime rate. However, this is unfortunately due to fudged prosecutorial statistics. Every crime case pursued by Japanese police generally ends up in prosecution, whether you’re the culprit or not, and that leads to having a high “solved” case rate.
Although Japan’s low crime rate numbers are fudged, the country does boast a relatively safe country compared to others around the world. However being one of the safest country in the world doesn’t make it immune to petty crime.
A local Japanese friend of mine told me that Japanese people don’t tend to steal, but if they do, it’s likely going to be umbrellas or bikes.
Now I can understand the reason behind why bikes are being stolen as some can be quite expensive! They can be easily resold and hard to track. But, why umbrellas??
It’s clear that the problem with umbrella theft is large enough in the country to warrant someone to invent devices to lock umbrellas in public space. The first time I encoutered a umbrella lock station was in front of an office building. I guess it’s not acceptable practice to bring your dripping wet umbrella up with you in the office as it is in the western world.
All you do is you place your umbrella inside the contraption to lock your umbrella and set a passcode.
