Ride any metro line in Tokyo and you’ll see dozens of people dozing off on the cushy seats without much concern about being pickpocketed. Similarly, wandering the streets late at night doesn’t pose the same risk to safety as it does in other parts of the world. Tokyo doesn’t just feel like the safest city in the world, it is the safest city in the world. For the third time running, the Economist Intelligence Unit has ranked Tokyo number one for overall safety across four pillars, with Osaka coming in at a close third. It’s easy to attribute the ranking to a low crime rate, but there are a lot of elements taken into account in compiling the (biennial) Safe Cities Index 2019, which surveyed 60 different cities worldwide.
Tokyo scored the best in digital security, with strict data privacy and cyber protection policies. Tokyo and Osaka come in top for healthcare as well, as Japan has maintained its high life expectancy while providing excellent healthcare and emergency services. The healthcare ranking also factored in food safety and water cleanliness along with air quality, all of which earned Tokyo a score of 87.5 in the division. As for personal security, we face consistently low threats of terrorism and civil unrest, as well as low levels of corruption and petty theft. The personal security ranking also included the regulation and enforcement of guns. Fun fact: while Japanese citizens are legally allowed to obtain firearms for sport, the process for obtaining a license is an intensely long one.
Tokyo was ranked fourth for safety in infrastructure, with Singapore coming in on top followed by Osaka and Barcelona, but this is a significant improvement from where we were in 2017 (no. 12) in the same category. This section scrutinises how pedestrian-friendly cities are, as well as the enforcement of transport safety and their preparation for disaster management. Unlike Singapore, Tokyo and Osaka face the unique challenge of coping with the occasional earthquake. While most tremors are gentle enough to go unnoticed, both cities have implemented extensive measures in the case of natural disaster including automatic early warning alerts on mobile phones.
With the overall score as high as it is, it’s difficult to imagine what steps could be taken to make Tokyo more secure than it already is, but with the 2020 Olympics fast approaching, the city’s bureaus are working to ensure that an influx of visitors doesn’t compromise the safety of the city, even developing high-tech robots to detect potential threats. We are number one for a reason, after all.
Explore the metropolis with total peace of mind and start with our list of the 88 things to do in Tokyo.