Do you feel safe in Japan?

[Maciamo]

Here in Brussels there are quite a lot of Japanese because the headquarters of Toyota, Honda and Subaru Europe are all in (or near) Brussels. An neighbourhood (Stockel) has quite a lot of Japanese residents working for Toyota. They tend to be so noisy and rude (or rather their children, which they do not educate properly) that many local shops have decided to refuse entry to Japanese people (only). You have to understand that Brussels is one of the most cosmopolitan city in the world (1/3 of foreigners + more naturalised immigrants from the 5 continents) and that this kind of ban only concerns Japanese expats. Why is it that the Japanese abroad manage to behave in a worse way that poor and misadapated Muslim or Black African immigrants ?

I think the reason is simple. While in Japan, the social pressure to behave well is so strong that once they leave Japan they think everything is allowed. Another reason is that Japanese people do not educate children to behave before 6 years old. They can run, shout and cause trouble to other people in public places (shops, restaurants...) and the parents won't say a word. I already noticed that in Japan. There are two categories of Japanese which are free to do everything they want : small children and old people. In Western countries usually elderly people are better behaved than the rest and teenagers cause the most trouble. In Japan it's the opposite. It's like they only started their adolescence in their 50's and it only got worse till they died.

 

[Pachipro]

I have always felt safe in Japan even when walking the streets alone late at night slightly inebriated on my way home from a get together with friends. I doubt I would ever feel comfortable doing that in any city here in the US. A person walking alone is a target anywhere here. Sad, but true.

In all my years living in, and visiting, Japan not once was I ever mugged. My only trouble to this day was when my fiancee and I ran into a couple of Chinpira who started making remarks to her for being with a gaijin and this was in the middle of the afternoon! However, when in Japan, I still try to avoid these type of people.

 

[ArmandV]

So after all there is some truth is all the street violence we see in American movies and series. :auch:

Movies and series are an exaggeration of real life. I've never been robbed. However, I am licensed to pack heat (just in case).

 

[Kyoko_desu]

Do I feel safe in Japan? I think it depends on the area.

Where I live, I feel pretty safe. I don't lock the door when I go out or go to bed and in summer time we all sleep with all the windows open in my neighborhood.

And I have been delivering newspapers on a bicycle ever since I got kicked out of high school early in the morning like from 3AM to 4:30AM and that's still as dark as midnight. And I have never experienced a dangerous thing. No hentai ojisan, no robbery, no serial killer, LOL. Only things that scare me are spider webs and dog poops.

However, as I said above, it really depends on where you live. A guy from Nagoya City, the 3rd biggest city in Japan was really surprised when I told him that I don't lock the door of the house and even called me naive. And Nagoya is only 30 minutes drive from here.

 

[thistle]

Well, I live in Okinawa and I feel safe here, BUT, I would not say I feel safe
living in Tokyo. There are way too many weirdo's living there now.
In the first year I was living there I was attacked at a public toilets in Kabukicho, while at a 'hanami party', it was the early hours of the morning.

I have a list as long as my arm, of things which were stolen from me, and that
includes underwear being stolen fromt the coin laundry twice! I was also once
bothered by some pervert in convenience store, while using the copying machine. Looking back it amazes me still, that I didn't flee the country.
In 3 years of living in London, nothing ever happened to me. I suppose it was
just that I didn't stick out there

I guess in short, what I want to say, is No I feel no safer living in Japan than
my own country(with the exclusion of Okinawa and the outer islands),
sure statistically Scotland has a higher crime rate(mainly knife, gang related),
but nowadays I would not feel safe to walk home at night in Japan.
Too many random attacks, you never know when another nutter is going to
jump out with a cutter knife.

And Okinawa does have it's own crime, local crime(I'm not even going to touch the subject of US military crime). There is crime a plenty here, JHS students, high school students. I have had things stolen here, bicycles, a purse from a resort hotel, pretty common on the beaches as well.
It is not crime free! so please don't think it is.

 

[Davey]

...ever since I got kicked out of high school ...

Bit off topic, but how did you do that?

 

[pipokun]

...while at a 'hanami party', it was the early hours of the morning.

Hanami party at Kabukicho???

 

[thistle]

OK, it was a LONG time ago, and maybe it was not Kabukicho, but
it was in a temple grounds somewhere in Shinjuku-south..
Is Kabukicho where all the cinema's are, I don't remember?

 

[craftsman]

I have almost always felt safe in Japan but know from the people around me how typical crimes common the world over are just as prevalent here.


In my Tokyo days, my wife was pick pocketed on the way to work in Yokohama, her parents were burgled in the middle of the day and a good friend of mine was mugged at knife-point by an intruder in his own bedroom in Setagaya.


I think if you just believe the news stories about sensational crimes of passion etc, you might get the wrong impression that these kinds of crimes are not relatively common. In fact so common, that the news don't cover them.


The only time I felt unsafe in the city, however, was when bososoku motorbike riders used to scream past with baseball bats.


Where I live now its the creatures not the people you need to worry about.

The main danger are mamushi poisonous snakes

and the venomous mukade centipede

 

[thistle]

It's going off the subject I know, but are those mukade centipedes you
had a pic. of really venemous, craftsman, as I had one outside my house this summer. I didn't know they were poisonous.

 

[DoctorP]

yes they are, and they are abundant in Okinawa also!

 

[Carlson]

Over all I feel more safe in Japan then any other place ive been.

 

[Revenant]

It seemed to me that some parts of American cities were absolute hell holes, and people advised me against going anywhere near the neighbrhood till the daytime traffic was steadily busy. Asked a taxi cab driver where the greyhound bus station was in New Orleans, and he told me it was just eight blocks away, but that I simply shouldn't go there so early in the morning. There were some there that would slot me for the tennies on my feet.

Hastings street in Canada is the roughest Canadian area I've been into, and while people said it was dangerous, I got the feeling that the guys there just weren't going to bother with me, since I didn't look like I'd go down too easily. Would however be a different story for a woman or smaller guy I believe.

The bar closing times were probably the closest I've come to actually being in physical danger. There was usually at least one guy simply looking for a fight, and most of the time I was able to avoid these guys. I did have a couple guys take swings at me before going after someone else. In Japan, apart from a confrontation with an angry short Brazilian (who I don't think is completely together mentally) at a bar just a month ago, I have never felt the need to look out for drunks looking for fights.

Even the Chinpira here don't seem sure what I'm capable of, and so do not bother me at all. Overall, I feel physically safer in Japan than Canada.

As to the gov't, it seems that a lot of people have difficulties with immigration, police, etc, but all in all, I seem to avoid all these troubles, even if I technically give them more reasons to mark me out as a possible shady foreigner.

 

[craftsman]

It's going off the subject I know, but are those mukade centipedes you
had a pic. of really venemous, craftsman, as I had one outside my house this summer. I didn't know they were poisonous.

They're killed on sight by islanders as, while for an adult their bite is a nasty sting, it can occasionally cause much more serious complications in children and old people. (er...death actually)

 

[ghettocities]

Why is the bottom of the poll only "not so safe" and not "I have a rear view mirror attached to my hat."
I could barely last five days during my last trip and that was with sunglasses on the whole time.



Josh

 

[gaijinalways]

I would definately say I feel generally more comfortable out and about, but I'm a mega-jumbo size here, so that helps. But I have had people elbow me almost off the platform, and my wife worries about breakins, so no open windows for us. We're not into clubs, so we don't often run into drunks except on the last train. Strangely enough, she loves Europe, even though she was pickpocketed in London, and mugged in Paris!

I have very few problems in the US. The only thing I remember coming close to trouble was some kid climbing on my car hood trying to get windshield washing money on my way to the highway (took a wrong turn on the way out of Manhattan). Let the kid 'ride' on my hood for a mile, he was whiter than a sheet when he dropped off at the next light, calling me crazy. I looked at it this way, I'm alone with my sister who couldn't fight her way out of a bag with help, and I don't know who else is around. I'm hardly going to get out of the car to pry the 'windshield washer' off in an area that isn't my hometurf.

Dangerous in Japan? Depends on what kind of danger we're talking about?