I've had my extremely shitty bike stolen in Japan! It was a normal mama-chari, and I called all the usual suspects to confirm it hadn't been towed. The main th

I've had my extremely shitty bike stolen in Japan! It was a normal mama-chari, and I called all the usual suspects to confirm it hadn't been towed. The main thing was that it was parked in a place it shouldn't be parked, for enough time. Meanwhile my much nicer replacement bike is parked like 50cm away, but inside actual bike parking, and is just there. My neighbor has an even nicer bike, with a fancy GPS thingy attached to the frame, there for the taking. And it's still there! The Completist's Guide mentions that cheaper bikes are more likely to get stolen, and I heard that from police here as well. Though I think the general contours of "everyone has a bike anyways" is very true. They're also harder to fence cuz bikes in Tokyo are registered (not 100% but enough). Personally, I think that just social dynamics from having real bike parking (read: not attaching to stop signs...) helps a lot as well.