Lost & Found Philosophy - 忘れ物係の哲学

In the basement of Tokyo Station, the lost and found. Mr Yamada has been working here for fifteen years. “Excuse me, I’m pretty sure I forgot my umbrella yesterday……” A young woman is standing there looking uneasy. Mr. Yamada looked at the shelves. There are more than thirty umbrellas from yesterday. “What kind of umbrella was it?” “A vinyl umbrella.”

Mr Yamada thought to himself. His theory was that 'people who forget plastic umbrellas must have little attachment to things.' "Is this it?" He shows a similar plastic umbrella. "Ah, yes! Probably..." Whether it was really her umbrella, no one knows. But that's fine.

Every time Mr Yamada sees lost items, he thinks about their owners. Over fifteen years, he had developed his own philosophy. People who forget planners are too busy. People who forget books are dreamers. People who forget wallets - it's an emergency.

In the afternoon, an elderly man came to the counter. “I’m looking for something I forgot twenty years ago.” Mr Yamada was surprised. “Twenty years ago? Normally things are disposed of after three months……” “I know. But I thought maybe, just possibly.” “What kind of item was it?”

“A small wooden box. It was my father’s memento... That day, I was in a hurry to go to a job interview and left it on the train.” In the man’s eyes, there was deep regret. Mr Yamada remembered the back of the storage room. There was an old shelf that no one ever touched.

“Actually, there’s a place where we keep special lost items. For things that couldn’t be thrown away...” Mr Yamada headed to the storage room. On a dust-covered shelf, there was indeed an old wooden box. It had a date tag from twenty years ago attached.

“It was something my senior had left behind, saying, ‘Surely someone will come to claim it someday.’” “Could this be it?” The man’s expression changed. Tears welled up in his eyes. “This is it... I can’t believe it’s still here...”

“After that interview, I got the news that my father had died... In the end, the interview went badly, and I lost the box as well...” “But that failure became the turning point for me to find my own path. Now I run a small company.”

Listening, Mr Yamada thought: Lost items can sometimes change lives. After the man left, Mr Yamada was lost in thought. According to his philosophy, people who forget important things must have their hearts full of other matters.

But this man's case was different. Just because of this doesn't mean his theory is wrong. Everyone carries different circumstances at different times. In the evening, a regular high school girl came.

“I forgot my pass case again...” he said, looking embarrassed. “It’s on the third shelf,” Mr. Yamada answered immediately. “How do you know that?” “You always forget something on Mondays.”

“Because after playing too much on the weekend, your head must be fuzzy on Monday mornings.” The high school girl laughed. “Amazing! You’re like a detective.” “It’s just observation. Humans have patterns.”

The next day, Mr. Yamada was teaching the new employee, Tanaka, how to do the job. “He said that forgetting the box changed his life. If he hadn’t forgotten it, he might have had a different life.” “So even forgetting something has meaning, then.”

In the afternoon, a foreign tourist came. It seems he forgot a camera. Mr. Yamada checked the shelf. There's one expensive camera. But looking at the records, it was something found on the Chuo Line. By regulations, it's from a different line. But this camera must also be waiting for its owner.

'Lost items are not just things. They are memories and parts of lives.' This was Mr. Yamada's philosophy. And today too, in the Tokyo Station basement, forgotten items wait for their owners. Sometimes they wait even twenty years. But that's fine. Because surely, someday, someone will come to get them.