This audio is generated by AI, so pronunciation and expressions may not be fully accurate. The narration is only in English.
Find Inc. is a Tokyo-based startup that provides a cloud service dedicated to lost items. The company was founded in December 2021 by Representative Director Takashima Akira and COO Wada Ryu.
"We had been discussing starting a business together when Takashima lost something on a business trip. That experience revealed many challenges related to lost items and inspired us to create a service focused on addressing them. That became the starting point for find," Wada recalls.
As Takashima and Wada looked for ways to turn their idea into a viable business, they found a partner in Keio Corporation. The operator of the Keio Line and Inokashira Line in western Tokyo, Keio manages 69 stations and fields around 500 lost items inquiries each day. To handle this workload, 10 to 14 staff members are regularly assigned to lost-and-found operations.
"We were given a look behind the scenes at Keio Corporation, and we were struck by just how demanding the work was for the staff," Wada recalls. "What left the strongest impression was the way they treated each lost item with such care, always thinking of the customer. That experience made me realize the scale of the challenge, and it was the starting point for proposing find as a solution."
In October 2022, Find Inc. was selected for the Keio Open Innovation Program, Keio Corporation's initiative to co-create value with external partners. A proof-of-concept (PoC) trial commenced in February 2023, and by May, the service had been officially adopted. Wada recalls spending the trial period on-site every day, listening to staff feedback and feeding it back into the product. Through this collaboration with Keio, find evolved into a lost items service designed to meet on-the-ground needs.
The biggest strength of find is its use of AI to streamline the process. Conventional systems required staff to enter every detail of a lost item manually, but with find, all it takes is a photo. The AI automatically analyzes features such as color, shape, and size, and registers the information together with the image.
"For umbrellas, for instance, staff used to type in every detail—from the color and pattern of the fabric to the shape of the handle and even signs of wear. Registering a single lost item could take around ten minutes. With find, it's done in about one. Since railway companies register over 10,000 lost items a month, saving 9 minutes per entry adds up to a huge efficiency gain and a major benefit for the business."
Unlike conventional systems that focused mainly on managing lost items, find is designed with the goal of returning items to their owners.
With find's database supporting image searches, even simple wallets or accessories that were once hard to identify through text alone can now be matched. All communication with owners takes place through a dedicated chat system called "find chat," which makes it easier to inquire at any time than by phone—greatly enhancing user convenience.
During the PoC trial with Keio Corporation, introducing find cut lost items inquiries by phone and at station counters by about one-third, while the rate of returned items nearly tripled.
Tokyo is home to about 14 million people. Additionally, more than 500 million visitors from Japan and abroad visit the city each year, making it the location with the highest number of lost items incidents in the country. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department reports that in 2024, a record 4.4 million lost items were turned in to police stations across the city. That figure does not include items found and returned within companies or facilities before they ever reach the police, meaning the actual total is even higher. Wada's goal is to bring find's mission—"a world where every lost item is found"—to life across Tokyo first.
"find is already in use with major transportation operators in Tokyo, but our vision is a world where every lost item can be found—whether it's left in a restaurant or dropped on the street. To make that possible, working closely with the police and local governments is essential."
find's tools are already being used in some police stations to help manage lost items. The next step is to broaden that collaboration and create a citywide lost items service for Tokyo.
"First, we want to make it possible here in Tokyo, where we were born and raised, to find anything that's lost, no matter where or what it is, through find. If we can achieve that, it can become a model for expanding across Japan and overseas."
After its rollout at Keio Corporation, find has expanded to transport infrastructure across Tokyo, including Tokyo Monorail and facilities around Tokyo International Airport (Haneda). And in April 2026, Japan's largest railway company, JR East, is set to adopt the system as well.
In March 2025, Keio Corporation received the Prime Minister's Award, the top prize at the government's Digi-den Koshien program promoting the Vision for a Digital Garden City Nation. In June, the Bureau of Transportation, Tokyo Metropolitan Government（TMG), which also uses find, received the Tokyo Good Service Award at the TMG's DX Awards 2025. Both honors highlight the recognition these organizations are earning for advancing digital transformation in the field of lost items.
With inbound tourism on the rise, find is expanding its multilingual support. The service now offers Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean, with plans to cover more than 100 languages in the future.
As part of its new service initiatives, find launched a PoC trial of find Reuse in February 2025, running through the end of August. The program takes unclaimed lost items that have passed the legally required holding period and would otherwise be discarded, and sells them on the online marketplace Mercari Shops, operated by Mercari, Inc. In addition to contributing to the SDGs, the initiative returns proceeds to participating companies, helping to offset the costs of managing lost items.
A world where every lost item is found depends on people taking the simple step of handing in what they pick up. By sharing Japan's culture of treating lost items with care, find hopes to spread that spirit worldwide and help make such a world a reality. Acting as a bridge of trust and reassurance, find will continue to grow from its base in Tokyo while expanding its network.
