Fukushima waste disposal plant workers face charges for keeping Y10 million found in garbage

If the original owner can't be found they should be allowed to keep it. But i bet the goverment will swipe it instead eh

Yeah Ozzie, they should be allowed to keep it. But now they've lied about it and so the system will do its worst for no good reason.

If the original owner can't be found they should be allowed to keep it.

They were at work, so I don' t know that they should be allowed to keep it. But if they had found the money on the street for example, the way it works is that you turn it in, then after a period of time (six months if I recall correctly), if no one claims it, they would be entitled to it.

It's because they didn't turn it in that they are facing charges. It wasn't their money, and they took it.

My mother taught us "Finders keepers", but since there's no one to claim it, why the problems? If I found 1000 yen in my job's parking lot just blowing in the wind, am I to return it to the boss or supervisor?

If they had handed it in, and the owner didn't show up, they would have been able to claim it.

If they handed it in, and the owner was found, that would be a great thing - they would have received a reward, the owner would have been able to get out of any temporary living situation they were in, and not have to depend on the govt. so much.

As it is, they stole it. Finders keepers works for 100 yen, but for 10 million? It's theft.

Thats about £71.000 wow! its tempting just to keep that sort of money, but that amount you would be always looking over your shoulder, because some one would want that back, and if its crime related, well, there not going to be happy if you have just took it, yes it would hurt me to hand it in and declare it.

It was mine!

Wow, that's a lot of money to put in the trash. That would buy me a lot of combini bentos.

If they had handed it in, and the owner didn't show up, they would have been able to claim it.

Actually no they wouldn't have been able to keep it. They were working at a waste disposal plant, and anything of value that they find from inside the garbage would become the property or "find" of the owner of the business.

They took it home because they KNEW they would get nothing for finding the cash. There was a similar case not too long ago where the business collected the found money, after a worker turned it in, and then to the police. No one made a claim, so the owner received the money.

As someone mentioned, if they found it outside the company on the street, turned it in, and waited to see if any claims were made, they would have possibly been able to keep the entire amount, or if the owner found, entitled to 10% (maybe 20%, I forgot) reward. The owner would be legally obliged to pay that amount when recovering the lost cash.

If you find something, turn it in, and do the paperwork at the koban, you can claim it in 90 days if the original owner hasn't. I've made use of this rule myself. The police officer at the koban even filled out the paperwork for me. It was then moved to the main police station nearest the koban where it sat until I claimed it on the 91st day. They even called me when they first received it, to let me know where it was. To claim it, all I had to do was go up to the claims window and show my ID. Then they unsealed the original envelope and verified the contents before giving them to me.

Correction : show my ID AND the original receipt from when I turned it in.

If the cash had been found earlier say at the collection point it would have belonged to city.

Not necessarily, if I had walked along that road and picked it up I would be entitled to either the reward or the total amount after turning it in. BTW, the cash was "found" earlier, just not identified.

It really doesnt matter where or who picked it up, once it was picked up by the trash collectors it became the "property" of the trash collection company. Not the people who picked it up.

The city would have no claim on the cash. By your argument the city would still have a claim because it was picked up at a city collection point, but let's say it was a prefectural road, oh then the prefecture would have a claim, or on private property, like an apartment building or mansion, then the owner there? No they have no claim, only the people, or in the this case the company that identified the cash.

The trash collectors are contracted by the city, or privately.

If I'm not mistaken, anything you find in Japan legally belongs to the city in which you found it. That's why you are required to go through the process like I did if you want to keep it. I've turned in many things that I didn't want to keep, cell phones, wallets, more than one unopened bottle of alcohol, even a new cutting board and expensive butcher knife to name a few.

If I'm not mistaken, anything you find in Japan legally belongs to the city in which you found it. That's why you are required to go through the process like I did if you want to keep it. 

Right, so if you turn it in, file the proper paperwork, it's the property of the city that you are laying a claim to? Do you realize how illogical that sounds?

It becomes the property of the city, if found by the city, not an individual, and /or if turned in to the police, without the finder laying a claim to it.

There is a huge difference.

If you found 100,000,000 yen, it's not the city's property, it's the property of the person who lost it, AND makes a claim to retrieve the money, proving it is theirs. However, if you turn it in, make the claim, no one comes to claim it, it becomes YOUR property, and NOT the property of the city.

not all the cases are so clear and cut and dry like the case in this post. Cash found on private property even if a garbage collection point. Whether found by the collection company or the city.

Never said otherwise, only that your supposition that anything found is city property is not correct..also

 If the cash had been found earlier say at the collection point it would have belonged to city. So it depends were it was found like on some one's private land then the claim would be theirs.

It would only have been theirs if they had identified the cash prior to it being identified at the trash recycling location. However there is no mention in the article that the men in question actually picked up the money themselves, only that they took it from the recycling/disposal center, which makes your argument moot.

 I was saying if found at a city garbage point, not one on private land, the city has a claim to it and happened in a previous case.

And I am saying that no, the city would not have a claim to it, unless, as I wrote earlier, it was identified at the point of pickup. Which is highly unlikely, and also moot here in this discussion.

The city can only lay a claim to property if no one claims it themselves.