Kay, you're missing the whole point. I wonder if you read the whole thread.



Of course that bike you saw may have been abandoned. But according the Japanese law, you cannot take away and own an abandoned bike without permission. This works for all abandoned items, not just bikes.



It may sound like a stupid law, especially when it's obviously something thrown away by the original owner, such as some magazines left in front of a neighbor's home for waste collection. I myself have phoned the municipal questioning the law (or maybe it's a by-law, I'm not sure. But anyway...)



But especially in the case of bicycles, abandoned bicycles are most likely originally stolen, and then moved and abandoned, and then maybe stolen again and moved until it is finally abandoned for good. So if I were the original owner, I would appreciate it if it was returned to me.



Out of my 5 bicycles stolen in 3 years, 2 were returned to me through the police. I remember that as I was picking one up from a police box some five train stations away, the police officer told me that a foreign student was riding it when the police found it. He said, "I guess he was one of those students having a hard time with financial problems, you know." which justified my thought of not pressing charges. Either way, I was extremely happy to see my bike again.



Because I was so happy to see my 2 bikes, and so sad never to be seeing the other 3, I always try to report abandoned bikes. I remember returning a couple of them through the police. In one case, the original owner walked all the way to my home to give me a token of thanks. She seemed extremely grateful, of course. Since then, I only tell my phone number to the police and not my address.



Another time, I saw a piece of attractive furniture left in front of a neighbor's home for waste collection. I knocked the door to ask if I can have it instead. The woman at the door seemed happy, but when she went to the back to ask the original owner, she returned reluctantly saying that the original owner doesn't want to hand it down to someone she doesn't know (Okay, I was a neighbor but I never got to say hi to the original owner). So I had to give it up.



There are many ways to have your used things recycled, but just randomly abandoning them isn't the answer. Nor can you randomly own abandoned items. I know countries where the government encourages people to deliberately throw things away for others to come and use them for whatever purpose they have, but that is not the case in Japan.



Just sharing my experiences.