Souvenirs packed with treasured memories, beloved heirlooms, smartphones and laptops full of personal information—all these and more have been rescued by an Osaka company after being left in Japan by international travelers.

Since Japan lifted its COVID-19 travel restrictions, tourism from overseas has boomed—and so has the number of items lost by foreign visitors.

While many who find these missing treasures hope to return them to their owners abroad, the task is not easy. The procedures are both complicated and time-consuming.

In central Osaka, OSS Co. has found a niche in the business of returning lost and found items to foreign tourists.

On a recent day, packages with international addresses were piled near the entrance of the company, waiting to be collected by the postal service.

“There aren’t too many today, compared with some days,” said Shuichi Aramoto, 74, president of OSS.

OSS launched the business of shipping forgotten items abroad in 2014, becoming one of the first providers of this novel service.

The company’s more than 20,000 clients nationwide include hotels, airlines, rental car companies and police stations, where lost items are often reported.

OSS has handled about 18,000 packages annually since Japan reopened its borders to overseas travelers in October 2022.

Its share in the market is “probably the largest” in Japan, according to Aramoto.

OSS originally started as a company that transported luggage for school trips and group tours in Japan.

It began its international shipping service after a hotel that was struggling to return foreign tourists’ belongings asked to outsource the task to OSS.

Candeo Hotels Osaka Namba, which opened six years ago in Osaka’s Minami, a bustling shopping and entertainment district, is one of OSS’s clients.

Due to the hotel’s proximity to many of Osaka’s popular landmarks, most of the hotel’s guests are from overseas.

According to hotel officials, their guests lose or forget around 100 items every day—totaling around 3,000 a month.

The hotel receives 30 to 50 inquiries on lost items a month from international guests and half want their belongings returned.

At first, the hotel tried to meet these requests, but it soon gave up due to the amount of work involved.

“Confirming whether the payment for the delivery had been made by the owner proved troublesome and some packages were returned to the hotel due to a problem with customs clearance,” explained Park Jaewon, 33, general manager of the hotel.

“We stopped trying after 10 shipments,” he said.

When a package is sent overseas, it is handled as an export under the Customs Law.

Depending on the contents of the package, tariffs must be paid. Some items can’t be sent overseas if they are listed as contraband items.

In addition, an invoice needs to be produced listing each item inside the package and its value.

When the combined value of the items exceeds 200,000 yen ($1,300), it must be declared to customs authorities.

If a hotel incorrectly reports on the type of items or their unit prices while shipping them back to the owner, the hotel can be punished for a false declaration.

As a result, hotel staff were forced to verify the items’ prices on their own, independently from their guests’ estimations.

“The verification process was exceedingly complicated and could take several hours per item,” Park said.

Although the hotel would inform guests that it would not ship lost items abroad, many guests were still desperate to have their belongings returned. Some would argue that they hadn’t known about the shipping rule, or pleaded that the objects had immeasurable sentimental value.

OSS came in handy when Candeo Hotels needed a party willing to take care of these cases.

The only thing hotels and other clients need to do is give OSS the recipient’s contact information.

OSS reaches out and gets permission from the owner to handle the return process.

The company then checks whether the lost articles include prohibited items. If included, the company notifies the recipient that those objects will be removed from the package.

After that, the recipient transfers money for the cost for shipping and service so that OSS can send the parcel as soon as the payment is confirmed.

If Japanese customs officials find an issue with the package, they contact OSS for inquiries. Parcels that cannot clear Japanese customs are returned to the company as well, ensuring that the package won’t be lost.

Park said his hotel values OSS’s service, as he believes it helps the hotel leave a good impression.

“If guests’ last experiences with you are favorable, they’re likely to come back,” Park said.

The cost of returning items can vary, depending on the country’s distance from Japan.

For example, shipping a smartphone to South Korea costs 5,900 yen. The fee for sending two pairs of shoes in a cardboard box to Australia is 9,700 yen. Sending two long coats to the United States costs about 15,600 yen.

These charges are the total price for the entire process, including the cost of labor, packaging materials, necessary documents and shipping in Japan and to the destination country.

Aramoto said his company has handled all sorts of objects, including the tire of a sports wheelchair, a gold medal from a competition, dentures and a vacuum cleaner nozzle.

In some cases, the shipment fee costs more than the value of the objects themselves, such as when the company returned a maid cafe membership card or a few capsule toys.

“However, we cannot measure the value of those articles to their owners,” said Aramoto.

So far, the international shipping service has not been very profitable for OSS.

“If you live in Japan, it’s not uncommon for your lost items to be returned to you.” Aramoto said. “But that may not be the case in many other countries. Making people happy will make us happy.”

The company is hoping to use the name recognition built through this service when it expands into shipping foreign travelers’ luggage and purchases overseas from hotels and shopping malls in Japan.