Most Japanese Feel Safety Has Worsened in Last Decade

Society Feb 21, 2025

Japan has a reputation as a safe destination among international visitors, but most people in the country think that there are more dangers than a decade ago.

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A survey conducted by Japan’s National Police Agency in October 2024 revealed that just 56.4% of respondents felt “Japan has good public safety.” This was the first time that the percentage had fallen below 60% since the survey began.

When respondents were asked about how they felt public safety had changed in the last 10 years, those who answered that it had “worsened,” including “somewhat worsened,” came to 76.6%, a 4.7 percentage-point rise from the previous year.

Asked which crimes they thought were the main cause for this decline in safety, “scams, including ore ore sagi (it’s me, it’s me scams) and phishing” (69.0%) and “personal information being leaked through unauthorized access” (58.3%) both stood out.

At 73.7%, the most common reason people gave for feeling less safe was “seeing more crimes reported on TV and in newspapers,” followed by 58.3% “seeing more crimes reported in online news.” A further 14.2% said that either they or their friends and acquaintances had “been or almost been the victim of a crime.”

The online nationwide survey received responses from 5,000 people aged 15 and over.

crime safety