The lie about Japan being safe is the product of a variety of factors. One of them is the need of the Japanese to sell their country as idyllic and superior in many ways to other countries and the companion compulsion among Western folks being sold such stories to buy wholesale into this notion.

When reading about how lost wallets are returned and bikes are left unlocked yet are not stolen, Western people don't question the veracity of these assertions, but simply nod their heads in agreement and wistfully consider how they'd like to live in such a society, too.

They don't know bikes that appear unlocked and unchained actually have small, hard-to-see barrier locks on their front or back wheels. They don't know bikes are regularly stolen and police frequently stop cyclists to see if their serial numbers correspond to stolen bikes' numbers. Such searches wouldn't be necessary if there weren't a goodly number of stolen bicycles to track.

Western folks also don't know that even Japanese people will scoff at the idea that every lost wallet is returned with their contents intact. One of my students laughed heartily at an article on Japanese honesty that claimed lost items were diligently returned. He'd lost three wallets, and only one came back - and that one was missing its cash.

While it is true you may have a far better chance of getting back a lost item in Japan than any other country, it's by no means a certainty, nor is it an indication of scrupulous honesty. It's a reflection of a society that teaches a pattern of response to their citizens from a young age and encourages paranoia about found money.

Every person I've spoken to about this told me he or she would not keep the money out of fear that it was ill gotten gains. They fear the police would see them picking it up and arrest them for theft if they kept it. Not one of them said, "It's wrong."

Additionally, the low crime statistics, which seem to support the notion that Japan has little crime, are taken at face value. If you peek under the covers of these statistics, you will find they are distorted. For one thing, the Japanese police only count the crimes they consider filing and acting on.