Japan is a very safe country. I always felt like I was safer in Japan than I would be in the states. Of course, Japan does have its share of crime and you can never be completely safe anywhere, so you should definitely follow common sense safety rules wherever you go. But still, Japan’s crime rates are quite low compared to most other countries. Although this may not be advisable according to common sense and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this to anyone, I often went out walking around or riding my bike in the middle of the night by myself and never felt any threat to my personal safety. I actually had several Japanese people tell me it was perfectly safe for me to do this even as a single young woman! And I know I would never be able to do such a thing in lots of other countries. What really amazes me, though, is that you almost never have to worry about getting anything stolen! If you accidentally leave your wallet somewhere, chances are someone will turn it in to the police station for you. Speaking of Japanese police stations, they’re really great too. For Japanese police officers, it’s actually part of their job description to help people who are lost. At any train station (and at a few other places around town too), you can find a place called a kouban, where a friendly officer will always be ready with maps and everything else you need to get you where you want to go! As someone who gets lost easily, I took advantage of this numerous times.