Kyodo via Japan Today: 'Lost and found' law revised to enable online search for items
Police launched a new system Monday to locate misplaced items via the Internet. The length of time police keep lost items was also shortened to three months from six months under the revised "lost and found" law, which took effect the same day. The National Police Agency expressed hope that the use of the Internet would boost the rate of returned items from the current 30%. The number of lost items turned in to the police nationwide stood at some 12.22 million last year, up about 50% from 10 years ago, according to the police. Under the revised law, mobile phones, personal computers and other items containing personal information will be automatically destroyed after the holding period ends. Umbrellas, clothing and bicycles will be sold after being held for two weeks. The police will keep the proceeds from the sale for three months.
The shorter three month period was proposed last March to cope with cost of storing the rising number of lost property items. This article doesn't say but, under the new law, animals will no longer be classified as lost property. Nagano Prefecture has details of the new rules in Japanese here including that easy-to-understand diagram above.
