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A lot of personal household safes have been appearing at Japanese police stations in the wake of that country’s latest catastrophe.
They haven’t only been recovered by rescue workers burrowing through rubble but have also been washed up ashore, and now law enforcement is running out of room to store them.

Until recently, these safes have been kept in the station parking lot, but with each station holding onto hundreds at a time, authorities are determined to try a more pro-active approach to reuniting them with their owners past simply watching for those people to show up.
Japanese police now hope to open these safes themselves with the idea of discovering identifying information within with which to make their own inquiries.

Under Japanese law, there’s a little more than three weeks for misplaced items to be claimed by their owners.
After twenty-three days, finders can grow to be keepers – or the government takes title.
Police hope to reunite disaster victims with their possessions prior to the finders/keepers-law can take effect.
Obviously, given the special situations involved, extensions to the typical deadline have been offered, but any haste that can be made might definitely be welcome by the victims.

The matter is especially important because of the Japanese practice, found especially amongst their elderly, of saving money and other belongings not in banks but at home.
Such “wardrobe savings,” as the Japanese expression goes, is very frequent but has become quite the misfortune for disaster affected individuals who have lost literally everything short of their lives and the garments on their backs.
Hence, any work expedited on behalf of such people wouldn’t simply be significantly appreciated but is absolutely essential to ensure even their very continued survival.
Luckily, of course, it is a result of the unique nature of Japan that valuables have been turned in, along with the absence of looting and other rioting – a fact not lost on envious foreign observers.