Another example of this: when I lived in Japan, I used to park (and lock) my bicycle at a very crowded station and leave it there for several hours. I locked th

Another example of this: when I lived in Japan, I used to park (and lock) my bicycle at a very crowded station and leave it there for several hours. I locked the bicycle but sometimes left my coat in the basket. I continued this habit for several weeks, until finally I left my bicycle there over the weekend while going on a trip. When I came back, the coat was gone. The bicycle was still there, of course. That said, the most likely and annoying thing to happen to your bicycle in Japan is that the parking police will steal it if you park near a crowded place (eg. any train station) and place it in some storage facility far away from where you live, where you then have to go by bus to pick up your bicycle and cycle home. This happened to me at least 3 times..