hello, very recently I found an abandoned Honda monkey around my neighborhood and am very interested in claiming it, apparently, it has been sitting there for over 5 years and has never been touched or moved, I did leave a note on the tank saying that I’m interested if the owner ever sees it. Please tell me if anyone knows how I could somehow claim or own the bike.
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It might not be abandoned even if it hasn’t moved in a while, you can still get in trouble for taking it, you’ll need the owner’s permission to take it
Can’t be done apparently
Unless the owner sells it to you, there’s no way to legally steal something just because you want it.
I knew a guy who had one of those and it got stolen, which was apparently a big problem with them. Maybe ask the police to check on it first to make sure it hasn’t been stolen and then find out if there is a process where you can legally take possession of it.
You have no claim to it. If you really want to do it legally, you must first purchase the land on which the bike is located. If a motorcycle that does not belong to you is left on your land for an extended period of time, I believe you can dispose of it by following the legal process.
You can’t steal things just because you want them, no matter in how bad state.
Leaving a note to the owner (hopefully in Japanese) is the best you can do.
Everyone saying it can’t be done: salvage rights exist, even in Japan.
Edit: cursory Google returns results for maritime salvage, nothing for road salvage, but the fact that these trashed bikes do eventually get cleaned up leads me to believe there is a procedure, even if it starts with having the city flag the vehicle for removal.
No, I do not know specifically what OP should do, but the concept of picking up a piece of junk that no one wants and making it your own is *not* theft, no matter how much people in Japan look down on the practice of doing anything other than paying lots of money for something you don’t have to.
Let me rephrase OP’s question in the hope that someone might actually know what to do:
How does one file a salvage claim for a discarded moped?
PS: OP, are you sure you want a bike that’s been left to the elements for five years, not to mention having to replace the ignition for a new key (legal gray zone that will raise a lot of eyebrows no matter your story)?
what land is it on? private or public. Start from there. You will contact the land owner who will contact the bikes owner who you can make your appeals to. And the land owner can ask the cops to find the owner. You can’t as it’s not on your land.
And it’s probably left there cause it doesn’t go. You might be throwing good money away on a lemon monkey and you won’t know until you buy it. Good luck.
Foreigner comes to Japan, tries to claim what isn’t his…