Japanese citizens have shown incredible honesty in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that brought the country to its knees.
It emerged yesterday that the Japanese returned almost $78million in cash found in the quake rubble.
In the five months since the disaster struck, people have turned in thousands of wallets and purses found in the debris, containing nearly $30 million in cash.
More than 5,700 safes that washed ashore along the coastline have also been hauled to police stations by volunteers and rescue crews.
Inside the safes officials found about $30million in cash. In one safe alone, there was the equivalent of $1,000,000.
Other contained gold bars, antiques and other valuables.
Japan’s National Police Agency said nearly all the money found in the areas worst hit by the tsunami has been returned to its owners.
Most people kept bankbooks or land rights documents with their names and addresses in their safes.
At one point, there were so many safes handed in to police that they had difficulty finding room to store them.
Even now, Koetsu Saiki, of the Miyagi Prefectural Police, said a handful of safes are handed in every week.