Honest Japanese took a total of 3.34bn yen to police, with one individual handing over £100,000 found in a bag

Tokyo’s citizens handed in £18m of lost cash last year, police said on Monday, with three quarters of it returned to its rightful owner, in the latest example of Japan’s startling honesty.

Upstanding citizens who had chanced upon wallets full of money took a total of 3.34bn yen to their local police officers, a spokeswoman for Tokyo Metropolitan police said.

They included one seemingly incorruptible person who, according to the Sports Nippon, found a sports bag stuffed with notes worth £100,000.

Nearly 74% of the total cash found in the year was eventually returned to the people who lost it, the spokeswoman said – including the holdall full of money.

Under Japanese law, if something is not claimed after three months, the person who handed it in is allowed to keep it.

But astonishingly, 390m yen in cash went into Tokyo’s city coffers after finders relinquished that right.

Local media played up the story as further proof of how safe Japan is, a point Tokyo hammered home during its successful bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games.

The country’s relative security – something many Japanese are proud of – is often remarked upon by visiting foreigners, who swap tales of wallets or passports accidently abandoned in bars or taxis that invariably get returned.