The Japanese have handed in almost £50 million in cash found in the rubble left behind by the earthquake and tsunami that hit the country earlier this year.
Their honesty was revealed as Britain’s courts are clogged with scores of looters following the orgy of theft that accompanied last week’s riots.
In the five months since disaster struck in Japan, people have turned in thousands of wallets and purses found in the debris, containing nearly £30 million in cash.
More than 5 700 safes that washed ashore along the coastline have also been hauled to police stations by volunteers and rescue crews.
Inside them officials found about £20 million in cash. In one, there was the equivalent of £600 000. Other contained gold bars, antiques and other valuables.
Police said nearly all the money found in the areas worst hit by the tsunami had been returned to its owners. Many had kept documents with their names and addresses in their safes.
At one point, there were so many safes handed in that police had difficulty finding room to store them. Even now, said police spokesman Koetsu Saiki, a handful are handed in every week.
It is not unusual for the Japanese to keep large amounts of cash at home and at offices. From early April to late July, one police station hired three specialists to help open the safes it had recovered.
“In most cases, the keyholes were filled with mud,” said Mr Saiki. “We had to start by cutting apart the metal doors.
“The fact that these safes were washed away, meant the homes were washed away too. We had to first determine if the owners were alive, then find where they had evacuated to.”
Ryuji Ito, professor emeritus at Yokohama City University, said: “There must be some safes that were stolen. But the fact that so much cash has been returned to its owners shows the high level of ethical awareness in the Japanese people.” - Daily Mail