Barely any. I’ve forgotten my backpack on the train and my wallet at the supermarket and felt pretty secure they’d still be there when I returned hours/a day later, and they were. I leave my laptop unattended in cafes and nobody takes it. My friend only had his city bike stolen after 4+ years of not owning a bike lock. Women can generally wander the streets alone at 3am without worry. You still should have some amount of common sense and probably not do the above lightly, but knowing that your actual chances of getting in trouble is low is a great thing.

Most of the crime I hear of is stuff like people getting ripped off in rip off bars; perverts taking up skirt photos in crowded trains; desperate people taking insanely bad loans from loan sharks and then being intimidated to pay them; and the occasional off the chain beheading once ever now and then. Hence the general bewilderment when Abe got shot.

> My friend only had his city bike stolen after 4+ years of not owning a bike lock.

My friend had something similar after claiming you didn’t need to lock your bike in Japan. Only they didn’t take his bike. They locked it, and took just the key. It still brings a smile to my face to think about it.

I spent a few weeks in Japan and it was the safest I've probably ever felt.

Interestingly though there was one night I went out and my friend living in that city was glad I didn't get harassed for being gaijin - apparently the area I went out in is notorious for people being rough on foreigners (somewhere in Fukuoka close to 10 years ago)

I live in Tokyo. It's a very safe city and you can walk around even in the evening/night (maybe it's best not to at *LATE* night, but still) without many issues. Obviously, there's still "bad people" no matter where you go on this planet, so you can't just drop your guard completely (especially in very tourist-heavy neighborhoods with people waiting to take advantage of you). In the 3 or so years I've lived here, the worst I've had was hearing people shout drunk at night every once in a while in my neighborhood. Oh, and also an old man with a wooden sword going nuts against another old man with a hammer but the police was called and they got both taken away, seemed like some family feud or some stuff at like 3am under my window.

Regardless, if you live on the ground floor (or even higher floors), having bars on your windows is relatively common/normal/advisable no matter where you are. I'm in a high rise building on a high floor and my windows have bars but it feels more like an architectural design than anything (also it prevents people from accidentally falling off, especially if you have kids or pets). They also prevent stalkers or laundry thieves, which are sometimes common (unfortunately), especially towards women.

> However even the first picture (on the right side) shows that windows have bars - probably to secure the building against thieves? How much theft is there in Japan?

I think the bars are more for protection against flying debris during typhoons or to protect children from falling out of open windows.

I've lived and worked in San Francisco and downtown San Jose, been to NYC many times, etc.

I felt the safest in Tokyo at 11PM than any of those other places.

The only places I felt a bit uncomfortable at night were super touristy areas, like Shinjuku's Kabukicho, because some bars/clubs have "hawks" or "tauts" that will try to get you to come inside, where they may drug/rob you. Usually Nigerians, but I saw some Japanese doing it as well.

Just need to have some street smarts not to go with random strangers into places like that.

Those look like railings to me, more for safety than for security.

It's so safe that expats who return to their home countries after spending a few years there often report needing to relearn basic "street smarts" personal awareness and safety practices.

There’s a tradition in Japan of sending 3yo kids on their first errand by themselves. There was even a tv show about it.

In my experience, Tokyo, and Japan overall, is maybe the safest city/country in the world.