Is Japan Really Safe For Foreign Women?

TOKYO GUIDEBOOK takashifromjapan.com/tokyocompleteguide

I’m with the Swiss girl. My concern is that no one will help me if I ever get into any real trouble. I have felt faint on the trains; I’ve crouched in front of a vending machine after feeling ill when I’ve been alone and no one came to check on me. I’ve even heard people talking about me and speculating what might be wrong with me, but no help whatsoever. Bystander apathy is really bad here, so I can’t imagine the police helping me either.

As a woman who's lived in Japan for 5 years, I will say it's relatively safe to walk around alone, even at night (depending on the area). However, as with pretty much all countries, it is generally less safe to live here as a woman than as a man. I have been followed a few times and have had to loop around so as not to give away where I was living. If I'm walking alone in areas like Shinjuku or Shibuya, there is a good chance I'll be stopped by guys doing nanpa ("girls hunting"). When I first came here, I was very naive and didn't understand completely that that was what they were doing, because sometimes they were lowkey about it, like "Teach me English, please" or "Where are you from?". But make no mistake, people in Tokyo don't just stop and talk to you for no purpose. If they do, I would just be wary. Don't assume you're safe just because it's Japan and take precautions like you would in any other country.

The part about Japanese people not helping is sadly true😢 I never forget visiting Tokyo as teenager 5 years ago when I saw fragile elderly japanese man collapse so that he hit his head hardly on concrete. I remember being shocked and looking how all the locals just kept walking over him. I felt nervous to approach cause I barely spoke 5 words in japanese at that time but I still had to, because no one else did. I was very concerned that he would get brain damage (he was very fragile looking). I muttered to him ”daijoubu desu ka” and he awkwardly just tried to say that its ok. I did not know what to do since for all I know he could have been run away elderly person who now has internal damage lying there on busy street (yes, nobody still stopped). Finally his wife/elredly lady comes and I helped her to get him up from the ground. This truly shocked me, since I had liven in the impression that japanese people respect elders but this was far from it.

My friend is working in Japan, and she’s often stopped at the street by hentai oyaji asking how much to sleep with her (they usually run when she talks in English). Once she told me that a man tried to lift her skirt to take a photo but she turned around just in time so the man ran away. Another story I heard is a Tiktoker who was groped in the train and when she confronted the groper, no one moved a muscle to help her at all. That is the sad thing about Japan, they care so little to help others in distress in public, or maybe that only applies to big cities. I heard people in rural areas are nicer.

Takashi: "You want to show your Japanese skills?" The last person with utmost confidence: "No." 👌😂

Doesn't matter whether you are a foreigner or not. As a Japanese woman myself, I've encountered creepy men here in Japan before. I apologize on behalf of that person and bystanders on a bus who attacked this woman from Switzerland and did absolutely nothing about it. Most of Japanese aren't really confrontational and due to lack of English skills, we tend to shy away especially in that type of situation, doesn't mean it excuses their behavior at all.

This is one of the reasons my Japanese wife prefers to live in NZ. Everybody here will help you no matter what the situation. We have and a few situations with a lost child and l;losing things and people are always ready to drop what they are doing and focus on helping you. It's very reassuring. My wife says, 'that would never happen in Japan'.

This girl claimed she feels safe, then proceeded to say she was punched and no one cared to help. That's the most dangerous place you can be - a society that turns away from you when you're attacked. You can literally never be safe in a place like that.

The girl from Switzerland’s story made me angry. I live in Japan, and I can confirm people do NOT intervene. My Japanese teachers have said that you should help if you can, but it’s definitely not the norm here. This is the one thing I would love to see change.

I have to say I've never been in Japan but weirdly experienced something similar in a bus while living in Rome. There was this creepy guy trying to grab a group of teenager girls inside the bus (that was full of Japanese), and no one did anything. I had to confront the guy alone, which worked out but was indeed very scary. The abuser wasn't Japanese, but I was shocked to see that EVERYONE was looking and that's it. They wouldn't even help ME help these poor girls. I guess being a woman is less safe anywhere in this world.

Takashii you are very good at what you are doing, very polite and comforting when talking to interviewees. Good job, keep it up.

I sent my daughter to Japan for a week with my sister as a 13th birthday present. My daughter was sexually groped on a bus for a minute while my sister was distracted with her baby a few meters away. My daughter was petrified and couldn't scream but curled up into a ball while fending him off. After a minute, a few other people on the bus noticed and told him to stop and chased him off the bus but the bus driver refused to call the polics or report it. My sister was very apologetic for not noticing and then told me she had 3 similar incidents on public transport whilst living in Japan for 2 years. I wanted my daughter to have a life changing experience but not like that. My daughter needed lots of counselling when she returned and is still affected. Riding buses gives her flashbacks. :(

Japan's collectivst society is both a good and bad thing, because yes, it's rare for women to be attacked in Japan, during such events it is also rare for anyone to do anything to intervene and stop it. There's a 2005 Japanese film called Densha Otoko (電車男) translated as Train Man that deals with this very subject. The film is about a very, very introverted man witnessing a drunk man assulting a young woman on a train, and standing up to him, only to get attacked himself, but nevertheless saving the woman and being praised as a hero while the rest of the people on the train did nothing.

I was on the train, and I saw this dude take a picture of this girls underskirt I grabbed his phone real quick and got her attention. He tried to cover his face and I got in his face using the translator telling him to delete it or I’m calling the cops. He ended up deleting and the girl asked me to stay next to her until she got off. I don’t like to make scenes cuz I’m a foreigner but I saw that and couldn’t stand by

I was recently in Japan. IMO, everyone kept to themselves or with their own groups. Many times I saw people who just looked so out of it, like they were faint, drunk, or something because they were wobbly but they just kept going about their business and no one else seemed to pay any attention. I did witness a man faint, in the crowded train station, and a few young men ran to his assistance, it was immediate. I had seen the man, crouched, earlier staring at the distance but I didn't make anything of it. As for creepy men? I didn't witness any of that but then again I'm not a young woman any more so haven't been getting any type of attention in a longgg time lol.

Not just safety of person, but of property as well. I lost my wallet, and a stranger turned it into the police, who tracked me down to my hotel because I had a hotel key in my wallet. I got my wallet back from the front desk, and EVERYTHING, including a lot of Japanese money, was still inside. Unbelievable.

I have lived in Japan for 5 years now. I’ve always felt safer here than anywhere that I’ve lived in the US. Saying that there are still issues here in Japan like stalking and aggressive behavior from Japanese women. Also ignoring situations when foreigners are being mistreated. A Japanese man was videotaping up my daughters dress on an escalator in Yokohama and many people saw it and did nothing. We only noticed when we turned around and he was sitting on the escalator with his camera. People around us were pointing or laughing but did nothing. Japanese Men have followed my daughter and I all around Tokyo or back home. It’s definitely scary at times.

I need to double check your channel to see if you already have it, but I'd actually love to see this interview among more Japanese/native women! I'm sure many feel similarly to the foreign women interviewed, but they may have more stories of what to look out for that some women who haven't been in the country as long wouldn't know about. Congrats on all your channel growth, Takashi! You've done a great job creating curated content and collecting your audience. Plus, it's so cool to go out and interview people to practice your conversation skills (in and outside of your own language). I admire you! If you haven't gone already, I hope you have a great (and safe :)) time on your travels!! I hope you meet many accommodating, friendly, and interesting people! I'm always scared that foreigners or tourists will meet bad apples in my country and not feel welcomed 😔so I hope you don't have that experience in your travels!

Having just come back from Kyoto and Osaka and Wakayama prefecture I felt incredibly safe no matter where I was. There was a general sense of orderliness, unbelievable cleanliness and there I saw no obvious homeless (or mental) people in the streets. To give you an idea of what Japan is like, there is a vending machine behind the woman from London. These machines are all over, out in the open, some even vend beer and tobacco. In what countries is it possible to have these machines out in the open without being immediately vandalized and destroyed. Amazing.