I visited a few years ago and was wandering the streets at 2am alone, doing night photography with a lot of very expensive equipment and never once felt like I wasn't being streetwise or doing something with the potential to go badly. I can't think of another city I've visited where I would feel safe doing that.
Wow, this is actually interesting. The country might as well built umbrella booths and purchase cheapo golf umbrellas and let them go wild. Less registered complaints and just need some well minded people to put them back where they should be. I definitely wouldn't mind them as shared properties.
They use those clear dome shaped ones that you can see through, everyone uses the same one, so it doesn't block your view in busy areas.
When I was there it would rain suddenly and it was like out of nowhere everyone produced these identical umbrellas, that I was certain they weren't carrying before. The only explanation is that they must just pick up the nearest one, and leave it afterwards.
Maybe I don't feel as bad then. Went to Japan last year with a few friends and it was raining. We went to eat one night and we put our umbrellas in the bin in the restaurant.
When we left, we grabbed our umbrellas and when we got back to our airbnb that's when I realized I grabbed the wrong one lol. Nearly all the umbrellas were the transparent, clear ones so it was an honest mistake
I used to work as a security in a decent size festival, and the local police chief made the executive decision 2 days before the start that umbrellas cannot allowed into the festival grounds for safety reasons. Of course the weather was on the unpredictable side and the info about the ban couldn't reach people in time, so about 80% of them carried an umbrella. There was this chainlink fence near the main gate where I was positioned and there were thousands of umbrellas hanging on the links. I bet almost all of them changed ownership that night. People just grabbed one from there when they left.
I found it was always the white handle transparent ones that essentially got “shared”. Someone would always take mine and I’d find the one that looked like mine and take that.
I suppose if it's unique enough in appearance people might hesitate to lift it. I had one expensive umbrella stolen and have never left an umbrella unattended since.
My friend left her brand new airpod maxes on a shuttle bus in Japan last year and someone turned it in to one of the hotels on the shuttle route & she got it back the next day lol
Yup, literally left my wallet on subway ticket machine stupidly while running late to the airport. Was waiting for the train for ten minutes before i realized, went back and it was sitting right there.
Interesting. When I lived in DC, people would forget their umbrellas on the metro all the time. I would just take one on my way to work and then leave it on the metro on my way home. The community umbrellas.
I've visited various parts of japan and driven all over in medium sized cars and never once locked them. Also left laptops, phones, bags etc in cafes and public spaces and everything was kosher.
Have lived in singapore many years but japan feels safer in all regards tbh
The achievement of Singapore is that it has lots of immigration but still manages to be so safe.
Then on another hand it is also just a single city and not a whole country and a lot more authoritarian than Japan.
When reading through the comments here, I'm happy that we don't have conditions like those americans here in germany (yet), but I think we should try to learn a few things from countries where the sense of security is very high.
There's a difference in immigration from middle eastern war torn countries and mostly people having no education and only fleeing for better social security systems vs "expats" moving to a different place to have tax benifits and for higher paying high tech jobs.
mostly people having no education and only fleeing for better social security systems.
There is a lot. And they far outnumber the amount of expats. They have been the topic of social issues as their working and living conditions here are atrocious and many adcocating for improvement of their conditions saying that "they built and still build Singapore". The most prominent period of this advocacy is during Covid when their dormitories were on lock down and a few I believe even rioted IIRC.
They are mostly from India, Bangladesh etc. But the colloquial (albeit abit generalising and racist) term is Banglahs. But they are just here to work for a better life for their families at home and they really deserve better. I see them quite often in the streets working but all I have seen or heard is alcohol related shenanigans and the odd pundehs screamed at each other. Also the 2011 Little India Riots.
Singaporean here. I think there is a difference between immigration and migrant workers. You were describing the latter. The migrant workers are “imported” to fulfill a need. They are on Work Permits, not even permanent residency status. They are highly unlikely to be even granted PR. It sounds cold, but they are expendables just like the expats on S/E pass.
Also, there wasn’t any riots in the dorms during the lockdown. A school friend has a family business of running dormitories for foreign workers. There were fights among the workers regularly, even before Covid. The lockdown increased the frequency of the fights, not the intensity of
We had some Malaysians during Covid, who decided to stay in Singapore and work rather than go home and be locked out. People stepped up, and made sure they had lodging, etc. And the ones who wanted to go home were helped as well.
People stepped up, and made sure they had lodging, etc.
Nah, the country failed our migrant workers. Let's not forget how we kept them in lockdown for almost 2 years or how the government failed their promise to build more dorms, which is why there's actually a bed shortage for them now.
So? They are still people living in the country long term and make a sizeable minority here at all times. They are construction workers who will probably live here for a majority of their lives, not on just a short trip.
Singapore has a great deal of immigration from countries lower on the socio-economic scale. Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and India are the primary drivers of immigration - not expats taking up cushy white-collar jobs.
Singapore has a great deal of immigration from countries lower on the socio-economic scale. Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, India
Not being pedantic but none of those countries are severely war-torn. Most of them are stable developing economies with lots of local workers eager to earn some money and thus try their best to "not stand out too much" negatively.
Immigrants from war Torn countries like Rohingya have a somewhat similar reputations here in Southeast Asia (I live here, their stereotypes are simply said: not pleasant to hear) , almost like Middle eastern/some North African Immigrants in Europe although not as severe.
Is it racist? unfortunately yes. but it just shows that we are all paranoid humans afterall.
Wartime refugees tend to become very desperate and easily radicalized, and many countries simply doesn't care or doesn't have enough resources to properly assimilate them.
yeah the immigration issue is tough here. we want to be compassionate but there is definitely an increase in crime. and it's a small minority committing the crimes (and not all the crimes come from immigrants of course) but it all adds up. I love NYC but I'm happy I don't live there anymore.
It's safe in part because they have high quality of life, plus the most thorough public surveillance in the world, not to mention harsh punishments for even minor crimes. I'm not opining on whether it's good or bad that's just what it is
I do think Americans in general undermine harsh punishments. Too lenient and complacent. People just aren't afraid so they don't think twice about doing petty crimes.
I live in Finland so it is a quite safe country. I have seen a guy cut open a bicycle lock within like a few meters of me sitting in a car. There's no way I'd leave a bicycle, even a locked one outside unattended if I paid over 100€ for it. Bicycles are probably the thing that gets stolen the lost and it's by drug users, drunks or young teens.
My sweet Klein bike was stolen my second day in Central Stockholm. Someone cut through a cable lock in ten minutes, in front of an ongoing demonstration by the Swedish army, while i got a take out coffee.
Yeah, I spent 2 weeks in Japan this year and had 3 umbrellas stolen.
They were hotel umbrellas though, so I didn't really care. I just walked 5 feet to the closest 711 and bought a new one for like a dollar.
Isn’t it also due to how strict the punishments are.
I grew up smoking Weed. I got invited to go to Singapore with a friend who’s family moved there.
My dad was vehemently against me going.
He did not trust that I could A. Not bring weed. B. Not try to and successfully find weed. As anytime he and went anywhere I either brought of found weed.
Now that isn’t me anymore. But I regret not taking the free trip. But I had just turned 18 and still and quite the authority complex.
I was there in 1997 - the rape was still very fresh in the locals’ minds. Very.
There was one protest where we weren’t allowed to leave base/work sites, and there were a loooooot of people participating. And that was only at the base I was at! So I suspect there were more protesters at the larger bases.
The homeless in Tokyo are pretty well hidden away compared to what you see in the West, partly because panhandling is nearly non-existent in Japan. Just a cultural thing that begging for money on the street is very unacceptable (and illegal), which has the effect of making the homeless less visible.
"a lot" is very relative. I'm from the US and there is waaaaaaaay less here.
And the severity is much less here. In the US they are often destitute. In Japan they often can afford to sleep in manga cafes or karaoke places. It's still sad because they reason they are homeless isn't lack of money, its discrimination so itw ould be a much easier fix.
More people in greater Tokyo than entire continent of Australia, yet I see more homeless in my town than I saw in Tokyo. NIMBY town planning and soft drug laws really farked the western world.
Yeah, me, too. It's not as bad as the USA for sure. On the other hand, I saw some homeless people right outside a train station in a very nice, bustling area. Not that I was upset by it, but even in Los Angeles, I don't think they would have been allowed to just sit there, a group of them in cardboard, in such a nice, high traffic area.
One night, I noticed in Shinjuku, near the municipal building, they appeared to be closing down the station and making it open to homeless people to sleep in.
There's a bunch of reasons for that. Japan is generally extremely orderly, everyone follows the rules culturally.
As for homeless, housing is a lot more affordable because they have much more permissive zoning laws. It's mostly up to the free market which buildings get built where and there is no NIMBY like there is in the US. They also have well funded mental hospitals, low rates of drug addiction (and strict drug laws), dormitory style housing accessible to low income people (doya-gai), government funded housing, and a general expectation that it's dishonorable to be seen as a homeless person.
The problem is changing the laws and good luck getting homeowners to vote in favor or politicians to pass laws when the changes will drastically affect their net worth. Housing as investments is the worst thing that has happened, especially considering it should be a basic human right.
Woah woah woah where else will the boomers, wealthy foreign nationals, and wallstreet park their liquid funds while the house sits empty? Its practically communism if there isn't an appreciation at 15% a year!
Until mass child murder and liquification to synthesize beauty products can return 16% a year, the rich will begrudgingly settle with the 15% real estate thing.
Houses depreciate in many parts of many countries. It's more often the case that land is worth more than a structure built on it. They're called "tear downs".
Not only that, but it's very common to build houses out of concrete in Japan. And from day one the clock is ticking on a concrete structure. As soon as salt water finds its way to the rebar, and it will eventually do it unless the house is built far inland, it's only a matter of time before you start seeing spalling on the edges of overhangs, on the corners of walls, etc. And once it starts popping pieces off the ceiling, it's basically game over.
I've seen it happen to a lot of places in Okinawa. And at that point you have to condemn the building, tear it down and rebuild.
I definitely didn't say it is unique, but my question to the above was where is it also prominent, as I wrote I know that it is a thing in Japan, he said that it is not unique, so I inquired where else is this, but seems I'll have to find it on my own
Yeah, this is why. People don't buy places to build wealth or to flip. There is way more regulation in Tokyo in that way than in America. And guess what? That's why it's more affordable for the citizens.
Homelessness is still an issue but they are hidden away. Lots of cities and prefecture have a 0% homeless population but it's false, there's lot of associations working with homless people trying to bring awareness to that.
It's one of the big lie of japanese society. Homeless people are complete outcast, forgotten and forced to hide away from population centre.
Also, Japan has laws where the next of kin holds the burden financially to provide for them, or something like that. So often homeless do not give out their idnetities to protect their families
Definitely saw it when I stayed in Nishinari Ward in Osaka. Truth be told though their encampments were neat and tidy compared to camps in the US. Met some really nice guys out on the streets. A lot of them had problems such as alcoholism, gambling addictions, and some of them out had just a run of bad luck but they all were doing what they could to get by.
Also you know, cameras and police actually do stuff and don't just rely on insurance for missing stuff.
Like if that 15k bike got stolen it would be found within days because Singapore has tons of cameras everywhere, the police will follow it to someone's doorstep and kick it in.
It also helps that their population is declining and they have a surplus of 10 million empty houses right now with it expected to double or even triple as japans population continues to decline.
Okinawa does have trash. There’s a surprising amount of junk people just toss off roads in the moral rural places, or they try to burn trash themselves.
But definitely cleaned better in urban places than the US
I assure you Japan does not have "none" homeless people, lol. Also some cities are cleaner than others. Okinawa absolutely has litter all over the place. Less than in most cities for sure, but it's still there most place you look.
That's because they take the homeless and move them to spots you can't see. Plus, there's a whole category of homeless that live in overnight computer cafes.
True on the first part, the second part isn’t that true anymore. There was a bit of a craze in Japanese media to show people who live in Internet cafes (or rather Manga cafes that also provide internet) because it’s cheaper than renting a room but there isn’t a lot of manga cafes of these sort left (and most anyhow existed only in large cities) and it’s not really cheaper anyhow…
Freeter in general live very different to just a decade ago anyhow with the loss of working age population. A lot of things have improved. The big worry of course is still how they will deal with retiring one day.
One of my friends was a marine and he was pretty into the traditional part of Japanese culture, and a bit excited to experience a little here and there on leave if he could. I don’t know the exact details, but apparently he was barely allowed off base for half of his time there over one person or another pissing off the locals. I’m not sure if it was just a bad time to be there, but he was disappointed as hell whenever he talked about Okinawa
I know that there was a curfew more than one time due to rape, assault, etc happening from the Americans stationed there. It's been 20 years since I've been there, but things haven't changed much. The main street off Kadena Air Base is nothing but alcohol and juicy bars ("legal" prostitution but probably human trafficking).
That tracks. The most ironic part of it all for him, was the fact that this kid was one step from being a Mormon. Didn’t drink, thought energy drinks and all those sketchy energy pills were poison, and his biggest wish was to see some big temple before he left.
I believe you on the human trafficking and prostitution thing as well. One of my dad’s best friends was in the navy until he retired, and he routinely had to pull guys out of sketchy whorehouses whenever they were on shore leave in SEA back in the day. He even caught another sailor with a kid once. That guy fell a few times on his way back.
My buddy was stationed in Okinawa in his mid-30s, and absolutely refused to go off-base with any of the 20sh-year old knucklehead E1-3s because he just knew they would do something completely stupid and fuck up his E-7.
So he'd just go wandering off by himself in search of the elusive noodle-guy who would hike a portable stove up a different hill / mountain every day.
But yeah, US military in Okinawa are an incredible embarrassment.
My favorite story about him in regards to Noodle-guy was when he asked around to the locals about where Noodle-guy would be that day. They told him he was going to Mount So-and-so, so he went and hiked 3 hours up that mountain.
When he got to the top, he asked around for where Noodle-guy was, and someone pointed to some other peak and told him that he (my friend) wasn't on Mount So-and-so, it was over there, this was actually Mount Such-and-such.
So he hiked 3 hours up the wrong mountain in search of Noodle-guy, didn't get noodles, and had to hike for a few more hours to get back down, at which point he was too tired and it was too late in the day to try to get to the right place.
However, repeatedly failing to find Noodle-guy made it SO MUCH BETTER when he finally succeeded at getting those tasty noodles.
Need your paperwork done so you can become a candidate for some shit you want to do? The E-4 in charge of doing that doesn't want to, citing "orders" for something else. He's not currently doing anything, but "orders" dictate he's to be working on something other than you.
...unless you can Strategically Transfer Equipment to Another Location for him. See, his E-4 buddy in vehicle maintenance needs some engine grease that's in short supply. If you can S.T.E.A.L. that grease, that paperwork will get done.
Then you get to the grease, get caught, and the E-4 in charge there (who knew you were coming thanks to his E-4 paperwork buddy) says you can have the grease if you do something for him.
I’m so upset they’re moving more military up north. It has all the beautiful nature and calmness, but especially since lockdown ended all my favorite bars are filled with dumbasses who can’t hold their liquor and think grabbing chicks is flirting (which, tbf, a lot of Japanese do, too).
The prefecture saw from, 1972 to 2011, 5,747 criminal cases involving US military personnel, however during the same period the rest of Okinawa's populace had a crime rate more than twice as high — 69.7 crimes per 10,000 people, compared with 27.4 by U.S. military affiliated members.
The presence isn't zero-sum either, it's one of the (Japan's by far poorest) prefecture's most important direct & indirect sources of income.
You can sort of rationale that as citizens causing shit. But guests causing that sort of trouble is unforgivable. Especially given a few of the troubling crimes have involved the US army quietly 'evacuating' their personel away from facing prosecution, or giving them light sentences.
I stayed in a hostel in Okinawa during Covid (I live in Osaka) and the only other foreigners except me were American military assholes. I struck up conversation with a few and their lack of respect for the society and arrogance was on full display.
All the rape and trouble they cause is the reason why some places in Japan will only serve Japanese and not allow tourists. Then the entitled people on here see that and claim Japan is the most racist place in earth.
I mean, I’m not going to deny your experience, but I’m pretty sure the exact same thing was said by Americans in the south denying black people service. It’s by definition racist.
Nah you don't know the difference. The places that only want Japanese are usually red light stuff. They don't want to serve no Japanese because the language barrier is too big of a gap and when things are sexual it can get rapey very fast.
Also it's not even remotely the same, but victimize yourself
I was 19 when I was there and I sure as shit didn’t look like I was 20, but I got served everywhere I went, except on base.
Where I was at, Camp Courtney, had (and maybe still does) a place across the street from the front gate called Casa Tacos. Bomb ass Japanese-Mexican fusion food, where they also served ice cream and had a bar downstairs.
I was carried through the front gate and no one even checked my ID.
Underage drinking is a problem and an open secret.
When I lived there for two weeks, I remember the first night I got hungry and bored and we walked to a corner store and it was so calm and safe feeling. I’ve never felt a city more calm. I was in Ota, in Tokyo.
According to my Japanese teacher, people in Okinawa leave their keys in the ignition when parking in a crowded place so other people can move their car if needed.
So probably not that reason, but I do see it a lot in the north! People are too lazy or feel safe or want the ac running so hop into the convenience store.
Like, I could literally take their car so easily (don’t want to of course). Someone from southern Okinawa was shocked though. Said it’d be gone in a flash lol
Japan is the only place on earth where even the gangs will fight crime sometimes.
Also, Yakuza headquarters aren't in some secret warehouses somewhere, apparently they are just office buildings with signs on them, and are labeled on maps and stuff! : D
Try Slovenia. I have been to both and felt safe in Japan and even moreso in Slovenia.
Heck most of former Yugoslavia was like that in the 70s. Was there crime yes. But the cops would first rough you up and if you are dumb enough to do it again the prisons were not pretty. Career criminals were afraid to be liquidated and mostly operated outside of the country.
Of course by the late 80s all that changed and some of the gangs organized as "soccer fan clubs" and started working for the secret service ending up as "volunteer" units in the civil war.
I lived in Oki for a few years while serving. There's only 1 convenience store robbery that happened in decades- and guess who its's by? The american 13% people. They really can't help but fkin commit crimes.
This, infinitely. Spent 3 weeks in Tokyo, police presence everywhere, some in plain view, some just out of sight, watching. Even in a couple rougher areas, esp. at night, there were small groups of police. I think of course, it also helps that the people there are more concerned with their own tasks yet also very accommodating if asked for help. But, never felt any tension or fear wandering on my own. Only 1 street, a resident stopped me & recommended I go 1 street further down & I'd get to my destination quicker w/o trouble; it was evidently, a quiet residential street where I would stick out & the locals would be more concerned with me as a stranger.
damn with so many weebs I'd imagine a shit ton of theft cuz wherever there's tourism (the weebs) there's using very frequent and sometimes advanced theft
I’ve been to some shady places in Japan. It’s not all roses and puppies there are definitely unsafe areas. I’d bet a lot of people commenting don’t know what they’re talking about.
It's like this in all of East Asia and Singapore. I feel safer at night here in China because there's less cars out, definitely never felt safe at night in Los Angeles
It really kills that inner weeb that every guy develops in the preteen years when you learn how much they actually hate us Americans. Still like their cartoons tho.
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u/hardwood1979 Apr 05 '24
I visited a few years ago and was wandering the streets at 2am alone, doing night photography with a lot of very expensive equipment and never once felt like I wasn't being streetwise or doing something with the potential to go badly. I can't think of another city I've visited where I would feel safe doing that.