There's also the fact that you could (statistically) also forget your Macbook Pro in a crowded public park in Tokyo and come back 2 hours later to find it there untouched (and unstolen).
Tell me if I'm wrong. But, I see your "still" as if things were better in the past.
In litte towns, as everybody knows everybody, the rules are different. As more and more people moved to cities there was no family presure to behave. So, things were worst because family pressure desapeared and there was no substitution to get good behaviour. Big cities were a source of trouble.
But, I have seen an improvement everywhere I go. I saw this kind of transformation in Spain. As the country become less corrupt after the dictatorship, economics improved and a safety net was expanded Spaniards become more civic in the big cities.
Also, Japan takes care of its citizens. Japanese expect the goberment and the company they work for to take care of them. Societies that promote a every-man-for-himself approach have a harder time to ensure public civic behaviour.
My comment was about comparing past and present, and how some times people overstimates how good the past was. I agree with you that it is not only about big cities vs little towns.
We walked a bit in the city and my spouse wanted to take pictures of me in a park. She put the flags on the ground for a minute (with me thinking: you can't do that!) and went tops 30m away from them to get a better angle. When we were done, they were gone. I'm actually certain they were not stolen, but some Japanese just cleaned up.
In general, the collective effort of the Japanese to keep their cities clean with basically no public bins around is amazing.
My friend lost her passport in Kyoto, it turned up at the lost and found. Peering in through the window they had a little bit of everything, and roughly a million umbrellas.
https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/compare/Japan/Unit...
https://medium.com/@alascii/this-guy-left-a-laptop-in-a-toky...
https://www.attendly.com/the-astonishing-lost-and-found-cult...
https://japantoday.com/category/features/kuchikomi/japan-a-g...
https://livejapan.com/en/in-tokyo/in-pref-tokyo/in-tokyo_tra...
(Of course, whatever Japanese culture might be, Japan now also has millions of tourists each year, with whom, YMMV).
I came back an hour later to find an old lady, having occupied my former spot, waiting a while to see if the owner returned before taking it to the nearby police box. I was all over myself apologizing and thanking her in my crappy Japanese, but she didn't get what I perceived as abnormal about the situation. She didn't even take me up on my offer of a baked sweet potato.
Another time, I accidentally sprayed 500 yen (so, roughly $5) coins all over the floor at Comiket when trying to extract change from pocket. Being Comiket, a coin rolling a few meters may as well have been a mile off due to the sheer crush of bodies. Since I was at the head of the line and didn't want to inconvenience everyone behind me, I mentally wrote them off as a loss and continued buying my hen^Wartbooks, only to have all the coins immediately returned by a guy who saw what had happened and went scrambling around for them. He, too, refused all thanks and melted back into the crowd.
So, although I can't attest to the laptop thing, it definitely wouldn't surprise me. The similar anecdotes in this thread seem to agree.
Been bicycling daily here for 10 years, never lock my bike. It's been stolen once, but with a bike costing <$100 I figure I'd rather save the 10 seconds per day vs. not losing one bike per ten years.
Forgot an iPhone once on a bench outside. Person who found it immediately called my contacts to find out how to return it.
Dropped my wallet once in Tokyo. It was returned to the nearest police box in less than an hour.
In Canada I just assume anything not bolted down will get stolen. I left company laptop on a taxi before and it got stolen, even so I called the taxi company 2 mins after.. lol one of the many reason I have no problem with Uber screwing cabbies.