Passport Theft Yesterday, I found that my close Japanese friend posted his status on Facebook which says that someone had stolen his passport just after he came back to the U.S. where he currently lives. He seemed to be greatly depressed because he had backed to Japan temporarily in order to renew his visa, and this theft had happened a few days after he got his new visa. I'd say he has no choice but to return to Japan again to reapply for his visa. By the way, I was not sure why some people steal passports in spite of the fact that stolen passports would become useless due to the sophisticated security measures now in place. However, I found an online article saying that stolen passports are used to gain access to the original holders' bank accounts or set up new accounts by criminal gangs. Therefore, millions of passports are stolen every year across the world. Anyway, I'll be more careful not to be stolen my passport when going abroad.