I was in a park near *Futako Tamagawa Station* today when and old man (60-70) came up and started a conversation quickly coming to the point that he lost his wallet and had no money to go home. He asked me to look up how much it would cost to go back home to *Ofuna* and then how long it would take to walk. After hinting strongly for a while he finally came out and just asked me for money to go home but I refused because I didn’t believe him. I felt a little guilty because he was old.
My guess is that if you lost your wallet and told the train staff they’d make you sign something like an IOU but let you ride the train. I’d also guess that if you lost your wallet the police would give you something that you could show the train company.
Anyway, might he have actually been in need? What is the protocol if you lose you wallet and can’t get home?
19 comments
I believe station staff can comp a rider up to 1000yen to allow them to get home, but they’re expected to come back and repay soon after.
Happened to me, they just told me to come back and pay the next day…
> What is the protocol if you lose you wallet and can’t get home?
You go to the police, and they will get you home. Usually the limit’s 1,000 yen, but they can increase it if necessary.
This happened to me back in the day when banks and ATMs were closed over winter holidays. I was staying in a hotel in Tokyo and used the JR East pass to go to Kusatsu for a day trip.
Being someone that loses things often I thought I was very wise to leave my foreign bank card, foreign credit card and 77 bank card in the hotel and brought only my Japan Post bank card with me. I meant to get cash on the way but there was just never an ATM and I was always expecting one to be at the next transfer point on my journey.
It turned out the last part of the trip was by JR bus and not included in the pass. You pay in cash when you get off and with there also being not ATM near the bus start I got on and explained at the end that I had no money. The driver took me to the JR station and explained the situation, I was told to go find an ATM.
I found one but of course my Japan Post card didn’t work during the holidays. Any of my other cards I left in the hotel would have worked. Oddly enough the Japan Post office was open for people to send postcards but the ATM there was of course closed.
Back at the JR station they printed me a ticket for the next bus back and wrote an IOU for the return bus fare. I was told to mail exact cash/change back to them. There is a special envelope/service at Japan Post offices to mail cash.
LPT: Don’t worry so much about the motivations of people asking for (small amounts) of help. Just give and consider it a donation to charity. Being generous feels great and it’s not your responsibility if that guy takes the money and does something else with it.
Once my child locked me out of the house, so I had no phone/shoes/money and I didn’t know what to do as she was too young to unlock it and there was no way to climb in a window, so I took the train to my husband’s work and got his key. I didn’t pay, I just entered the station at a run, looking really insane running in wet socks in the freezing rain. I was in a big panic.
You did the right thing. Don’t feel guilty. When it’s not your problem, it’s not your problem. If it’s a little kid, you may want to show him the way to police. If he is an old guy, an adult, he should know what to do.
Use your phone
Maybe this old man didn’t know the procedures all these redditors seem to know. Or maybe they were scamming you for a couple hundred yen. Who really knows. Me, personally, when it comes to small amounts of money, I assume I’m not being scammed and help. Worse case scenario you just bought some old guy a beer. Best case scenario you helped them get home. I’d rather err on the side of making people’s days better, instead of spending my energy wondering if I made it worse.
I would have guided him to the train staff. They know these protocols.
Come on man
true or not
the only reason is he needs money 😭
(sorry i’m just too soft for old people)
Japan’s pension for the old is inhumane in my opinion. people may be surprised.
plus how Japanese children abandons their parents/grandparents is so so sad
most of the old people i help doesn’t ask for it but are really really thankful
also Japanese are known to be very prideful asking for money maybe a desperate move 😭
Unless there was no one else in sight, why would an oyaji approach a gaijin? To be an Engrish lesson bandit, possibly. To borrow money? He doesn’t know the cost to get home? He’s made this long in life and he knows the ins and outs of not having cash for the train. Doesn’t have a phone to call a family member? We don’t even get asked for directions on a regular basis.
FYI: It’s a scam targeting gullible foreigners.
Walk it out
A Japanese person, of sound mind and adequate finances, is never going to approach a foreigner and ask for help. I believe that if you file a report of a lost wallet with the police, they might lend you enough money to get home. However, you’d need to return it promptly. I’ve never tried this myself.
However, if the person has no money, they might tell you a cock and bull story to get some money off you. You can call it a scam but they also might be targeting you and many other foreigners because they feel you are more likely to have pity on them than their countrymen.
There used to be a guy in Shibuya Station who would march up to you with a beaming smile and hold out his hand and if you shook it he wouldn’t let it go! And asked you money. The second time he tried it on me I lifted my hand at the last minute. 😂
Common scam. However, I once had a guy flat out tell me he lost all his money betting on the ponies and needed money for food and train fare. Nope. But I liked his honesty.
Don’t feel guilty. It’s a scam called 寸借詐欺.
Even if it was a scam. If the amount was minimum. I would have given the elderly fellow the funds. You never ever know when you will be in need. Sometime in life we are tested in order to show our true heart to God.
same exact thing happened to me in Osaka when I visited this year. I refused out of pure reflex coming from the US, but then I felt bad afterwards.