Japan travel tips

Is Japan safe?

11 guides, each rated 1 to 5 with the reason — and two lists per place, where you are comfortable and where to pay attention. Nowhere is called dangerous; the specific thing is what helps.

5.0 average across 11 guides · Very safe
Tokyo, JapanKyoto, JapanOsaka, JapanHiroshima, JapanNara, JapanHakone, JapanSapporo, JapanKanazawa, JapanOkinawa, JapanTakayama, JapanNikko, Japan

Tokyo Very safe

One of the safest major cities in the world. You can leave a bag on a train and it’ll be at lost and found. Be quiet on trains — it’s the social norm.

Comfortable: Tokyo

  • Kabukicho — the touts, who lead to bars with unlimited bills — never follow one
  • The last-train crush at Shibuya and Shinjuku

Kyoto Very safe

Exceptionally safe. The etiquette matters more than the risk: do not photograph geiko and maiko in Gion without permission — some streets now ban it outright with fines. Go to Fushimi Inari before 07:00 to have it to yourself.

Comfortable: Kyoto

  • Gion — the private lanes, where photographing geiko is banned and fined
  • Cycling on the pavement, which is normal here and is also where the collisions are

Osaka Very safe

Extremely safe, including alone at night. Osaka has a slightly rougher reputation than Tokyo which is mostly about volume rather than crime. The touts on Dotonbori who offer to take you to a bar are the one thing to walk past. Cycling on pavements is normal and the collisions are real.

Comfortable: Namba · Umeda · Tennoji · Nakazakicho · Osaka Castle

  • Dotonbori — the touts who offer to take you to a bar — never follow one
  • Shinsekai — and Nishinari after dark, which is the one part of the city locals mention
  • Cycling on pavements, which is normal here and is where the collisions are
  • The crush at Namba and Umeda stations before the last train

Hiroshima Very safe

As safe as anywhere in Japan, which is to say remarkably. The museum is genuinely distressing and is not suitable for young children; people come out of it quiet. Summer heat and humidity are the practical risk — the walk around the Peace Park has little shade.

Comfortable: Naka ward · Peace Park and the riverside · Hondori arcade · Ujina

  • Nagarekawa late at night — the drinking district, where touts work the pavement outside the bars

Nara Very safe

As safe as anywhere in Japan, which is to say extremely. The deer are wild animals: they headbutt for food, they bite bags, and the signs saying so are not decoration. Keep maps and tickets out of reach.

Comfortable: Nara Park · the temple district · Naramachi · the streets around the station

  • the deer — they headbutt, bite bags and take maps out of hands; the signs saying so are not decoration
  • the park after dark — unlit, and the deer are still there

Hakone Very safe

Very safe. Two things to know: Owakudani closes without notice when the volcanic gas readings rise, and onsen etiquette is not optional — wash thoroughly before getting in, no swimwear, and tattoos are refused at a good many baths, though the private ones in a ryokan solve that.

Comfortable: Hakone-Yumoto · Gora · Moto-Hakone · the whole loop route

  • Owakudani when the gas readings rise — the valley closes with no notice and the ropeway stops
  • the mountain roads in ice — they freeze from late in the year and the buses fit chains
  • onsen etiquette — wash before getting in, no swimwear, and a good many baths refuse tattoos

Sapporo Very safe

Very safe, with the one seasonal caveat that matters: ice. Pavements are treacherous from December to March and falls are the commonest injury among visitors — boots with real grip or clip-on spikes are worth the space in the bag. Roofs shed snow without warning; the barriers on the pavement are there for that.

Comfortable: Odori and the central grid · Maruyama · Nakajima Park · Sapporo station area

  • Susukino after midnight — touts outside the clubs and the occasional bar with a surprise cover charge
  • every pavement from December to March — ice, which is what actually injures visitors here

Kanazawa Very safe

Extremely safe and easy to walk. The winter is the thing nobody warns you about: Kanazawa is one of the wettest cities in Japan and it rains or snows most days from November to March. The famous garden ropes go up for snow in November, which is a sight in itself.

Comfortable: Higashi Chaya · Nagamachi · Korinbo · the station district

  • Katamachi on a Friday night — student drinking rather than any real trouble

Okinawa Very safe

Safe, with sea hazards that are real: box jellyfish from the warm months are why the beaches are netted, and habu snakes live in the undergrowth away from the coast. The reefs have strong currents outside the flagged areas.

Comfortable: Naha and Kokusai-dori · the west coast resorts · the Kerama islands · Ishigaki and Taketomi

  • swimming outside the nets in the warm months — box jellyfish are the reason the beaches are netted
  • the reef edges and channels — the currents outside the flagged areas run hard
  • undergrowth away from the coast — habu snakes live in it, and the hospitals stock antivenom for a reason
  • typhoons from high summer to early autumn — they close the airport and the ferries for days at a time

Takayama Very safe

Very safe. The mountain weather is the only real hazard: the roads to Shirakawa-go close in heavy snow, and the drop from a warm day to a freezing night in the shoulder seasons catches people in the wrong clothes.

Comfortable: the old town · the morning markets · the river path · Shirakawa-go

  • the roads to Shirakawa-go in heavy snow — they close, and the buses stop with them
  • the temperature after dark in the shoulder seasons — a warm day drops below freezing by night up here

Nikko Very safe

Very safe. Autumn weekends bring traffic that turns a 40-minute bus into two hours, the Irohazaka road ices from late in the year, and bears live on the plateau — the bells on hiking packs are there for a reason.

Comfortable: the shrine complex · the cedar avenue · Lake Chuzenji · Kinugawa

  • the Irohazaka hairpins in ice — they freeze early and the buses queue nose to tail in the leaf weeks
  • the marshes and forest above the lake — bears live here, which is what the bells on hiking packs are for
  • the last bus down — it is earlier than people expect and the taxi from the lake is expensive

The ratings are this site's own, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in; they are not an index. Read the general advice in travel safety tips.

The guides in Japan

people gathered outside buildings and vehiclesTokyoJapanWhere ancient tradition meets neon-lit futurepagoda surrounded by treesKyotoJapanA thousand temples and the old soul of JapanThe illuminated billboards of Dotonbori in Osaka, including the Glico running manOsakaJapanJapan's kitchen, and the one city where people talk to strangersThe orange Itsukushima Shrine torii gate standing in the water at Hatsukaichi, JapanHiroshimaJapanA city rebuilt around the one building it left standing, and a floating gate an hour awayDeer grazing on pavement with people in backgroundNaraJapanThe first permanent capital, with the biggest bronze Buddha in the world and twelve hundred deer that bow for a biscuitMount Fuji rising above a dark lake at night in Fujinomiya, JapanHakoneJapanHot springs in a volcanic caldera, with Fuji across the lake on the mornings it shows itselfvehicles on roadSapporoJapanDeep snow, beer brewed since 1876, and the best powder skiing in the world an hour awaywhite houseKanazawaJapanA garden three hundred years in the making, gold leaf on everything, and a samurai district that survived the warFuruzamami Beach in Zamami Island (Okinawa) in Japan.OkinawaJapanA subtropical chain with its own kingdom, its own language and the clearest water in Japana narrow street in an asian city with snow on the groundTakayamaJapanA merchant town of dark wood in the Japanese Alps, an hour from thatched villages under deep snowA building that has a lot of carvings on itNikkoJapanA shogun’s mausoleum buried in cedar forest, with waterfalls and a marshland plateau above it