Safes, Cash Wash Up on Japan Shores After Tsunami.:
OFUNATO, Japan – There are no cars inside the parking garage at Ofunato police headquarters. Instead, hundreds of dented metal safes, swept out of homes and businesses by last month’s tsunami, crowd the long rectangular building.
Any one could hold someone’s life savings.
Safes are washing up along the tsunami-battered coast, and police are trying to find their owners – a unique problem in a country where many people, especially the elderly, still stash their cash at home. By one estimate, some $350 billion worth of yen doesn’t circulate.There’s even a term for this hidden money in Japanese: “tansu yokin.” Or literally, “wardrobe savings.”
