News & Blog

Starting in October 2012, Japan introduced criminal penalties for downloading pirated files off the internet. This new law is different from most of the other anti-piracy laws in other developed countries around the world because it criminalizes the act of downloading, rather than focusing on the party who uploaded the illegal file (although Japan has a criminal law regarding uploading as well). Violation of this new law can be punished with a 2,000,000 yen fine or up to two years in prison.

Lost property is returned at a surprising high rate in Japan. This includes misplaced money as well as objects. In fact, in 2003, over 2 billion yen (around $25 million) worth of cash was lost in Tokyo alone and, according to police statistics, over 90 percent was returned to its proper owner. The reason for this high rate of return lies not only in the fact that wallets have easily identifiable owners, but also in the legal framework Japan has established regarding lost and found objects.