How Safe is Japan? Nobody Will Steal Even a Single Dumpling!

餃子ひとつたりとも盗まれない日本

突然ですが、皆さん餃子はお好きですか。私はとっても好き。実家暮らしの頃から、餃子を美しく焼き上げることにはこだわりがあったくらい好き。黄金色の羽、もちもちの皮、お肉もお野菜も入ったジューシーな餡。これ以上何を望むことがあろう。ビールかな。 Excuse this question out of the blue, but do you like gyoza dumplings? I LOVE them. Cooking them beautifully has always been my passion, ever since I was living with my parents. Golden brown crispy layers, soft and sticky wrappers, and juicy fillings of meat and vegetables. What else can you ask for? A glass of beer, maybe.

ただ、作るとなると話は別。そりゃ作って食べるのがいちばん美味しいけれど、手に匂いがつくし、行程が多いし、時間もかかる。なので買って食べがちなのだけれど、それもこれも餃子を好きでいるためなのだ。 However, my love for gyoza is a little lopsided. I like the frying and eating part, but when it comes to cooking the fillings, I want to pass. Homemade dumplings are the best, but they take a lot of work. It’s time-consuming, and I don’t like catching a whiff of my stinky hands after mixing meat and veggies. That’s why I buy my sweet, sweet dumplings to keep my love burning hot.

そんなある日、普段通らない道を車で走っていると、何やら餃子屋さんがひっそり佇んでいる。すぐにiPhoneの地図で調べると、それは餃子の雪松というお店だった。何やら群馬の温泉街で三代続く餃子の名店らしい。これは餃子愛好家としては見過ごせない。 Then one day, while driving on a quiet street I rarely travel down, I found a gyoza store. I pulled out my iPhone and hit the map icon to see the words Gyoza no Yukimatsu emblazoned on the screen. The original restaurant is apparently a famous dumpling spot located in a hot spring resort in Gunma for three generations. As a gyoza lover, I couldn’t pass up this opportunity.

後日さりげなく夫をその場所へいざない、車を停めて店先に立つと、なんと完全に無人販売だ。店の扉に鍵はかかっておらず、店内には大型の冷蔵庫に並ぶ、おびただしい数の餃子たち。え、東京だぜここ？あり得なくない？と思いつつ、狐につままれたような気分でいそいそと餃子を冷蔵庫から取り出す。何も悪いことをしていないのにドキドキしてきてしまう。 Later, I corralled my husband, who was driving that day, and we revisited the place. Opening the car door, I noticed the shop was open but no one was inside. It was an unmanned operation. The doors were unlocked, leaving many packages of dumplings all alone in giant fridges. Wait. It’s Tokyo — one of the biggest cities in the world. There’s no way it’s perfectly safe. Slightly lightheaded, I opened the heavy fridge door and took out a package. I felt a bit nervous, though I was doing nothing wrong.

1袋36個入り、1,000円。明朗会計だ。店内の指示通りに料金箱に千円札を入れ、冷蔵庫の扉をしっかり閉めたことを今一度確認し、車に戻る。無事に買えたのはいいが、無防備すぎる餃子たちを鍵のかかっていない場所に残してきたことに、一抹の不安を覚える。 The package contained 36 gyoza dumplings, and it cost ¥1,000 — around $8.50. Customers could leave their bills in the farebox. No change. Pretty simple. Following the instructions, I inserted the money in the box, eyed the fridge to make sure the doors were shut, and returned to my car, cradling the frozen package to my chest. I bought what I wanted successfully, but the rest of the defenseless dumplings in the unlocked store made me a little worried.

車内で夫に無人店舗のことを説明し、そこからしばし我々は餃子を案じた。24時間営業で鍵もかかっていなければ、いくら監視カメラがあったとしても少なからず万引きのリスクはあるだろう。もし仮に万引きがあったとしても、人件費の削減の方がメリットがあるということなのか。 On our way home, I explained the store operation to my husband. We were deeply concerned about the safety of the dumplings. The shop is open 24/7 unlocked, which means there’s a considerable risk of shoplifting, even with security cameras. Hypothetically speaking, can the company be profitable without labor costs, even having some loss due to theft?

もう餃子そのものよりも、業態の方が気になってきてしまう。2019年に東京に初出店してから、現在は全国に300店舗まで広がったというのだから、間違いなくビジネスとして成功している。無人なことはコロナ禍ではそれなりに追い風になっているようだ。 Now I was interested more in the business than the dumplings themselves. Their business is obviously taking off, given that the number of stores has grown to 300 nationwide since the first opening in Tokyo in 2019. Its unattended operation may have gotten momentum amid this pandemic.

後日調べたところ、餃子3袋を盗んで逮捕された男がいたという事件以外、餃子が危険にさらされた事案はないようだった。逆に微笑ましいニュースもあった。料金箱にお札が詰まってしまい、料金箱の上にお金が積み上がっているのをスタッフが監視カメラの映像で見つけて、慌てて店頭に駆けつけたという。しかし料金箱の上に詰まれた現金は無事で、客はお金を取るどころかきちんとお札を置いて行っていたというのだ。 When I checked online, there seemed to be no case of dumplings being in danger, except for a single incident in which a man was arrested for stealing three bags of them. On the contrary, I also found a heart-warming case. When the bills got stuck in the farebox at a store, people kept leaving bills on top of the box. It led to a pile of cash in an unlocked shop, but when an employee saw it on a security camera and ran there, all the bills were intact. Nobody stole money nor left without paying.

肝心の餃子は美味しかった。野菜が多めで、かなりニンニクの効いたスパイシーな餡。あっさりしているのでいくらでも食べられそうだった。繰り返し食べたくなるタイプのやつだ。 Getting back to the main topic, the dumplings from Yukimatsu were delicious. They had a strong garlic flavor with lots of veggies and weren’t so heavy that I could keep eating them forever. They were certainly addictive.

日本では、駅で落とした財布が返ってきたという話を聞くのは珍しいことではない。それなりに海外でヒヤリとしたことがあるせいか、私はスタバで席に置き去りにされた鞄やスマホを見るたびハラハラしてしまうタチだが、どうやら私は少数派らしい。この国ならではの、性善説で成り立つ雪松のビジネスがずっと続いていってほしいと思う。 We often hear miraculous stories in Japan, such as someone got their purse back after losing it at a station. After traveling abroad a lot and seeing people pickpocketed, I’m often surprised by such cases. When I find bags and phones on tables without their owners at Starbucks, I’m wide-eyed in disbelief, but it seems those innocent people are the mainstream. I hope Yukimatsu’s operation, which is based on the theory of fundamental good human nature, can sustain their business because this is possible only in this nation.

深夜に無人販売の餃子を買いに行ける国、控えめに言って最高じゃないか。日本の治安の良さを祝って、明日は餃子にしようかな。 The country enables people to buy dumplings at unmanned stores in the middle of the night. It’s awesome, to say the least. I think I’ll have them tomorrow to celebrate the security of Japan.

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