Hello everyone, I have a question regarding potential theft in Japan in particular Tokyo.
I’m currently in Tokyo right now and I worry about pickpocket cause where I lived (Paris) we always have to be careful no matter if you’re a tourist or a local, is it mainly cellphone being stolen but they can go for credit card sometimes, my own mother was a victim of it to give you an idea of what I’m used to.
Tokyo feel so safe compared to Paris, but
heard since the J.O it’s more common to have that.
I often use my phone to walk around for directions, I feel safe but should I?
I don’t have much on me less than 2000¥ , pocket wifi, passport, my mask and my phone but I worry the most about is my phone.
I have a large coat where all items are in my pockets and I always keep an eye or my hand on the one with money and cause of well Paris lifestyle , so yes I have pocket to put items, I can put the phone inside but I use it for directions a lot so it’s not always there.
What are items I need to be particularly careful with? Or perhaps my phone is more safe to be stolen than my money?
Also I avoid going to touristic area in the afternoon I go either in the morning or later in the day.(and I speak Japanese if you need to know, definitely not like an native but I use Japanese with people more than English and I can read Kana and around 200-300 kanji)
Also are the pickpocket generally Japanese or fellow foreigners?
Thank you!
17 comments
Living in europe I have never felt so safe than in Japan.
Dont worry and enjoy
Japan doesn’t really have a problem with pickpockets.
Got pickpocket my phone in Neaples Italy within 10minute on train station. Had my iphone in Japan the whole hour outside of hotel and it wasn’t stolen. Don’t worry.
I’ve only ever been pickpocketed once and that was in Tokyo station. Had a toddler and a baby with me and was in a busy bento store crammed with people. They stole my wallet out of my bag. I shouldn’t have had it there but I was exhausted with the kids and not thinking. All the Japanese people I’ve told blame it on “Chinese or Korean gangs”.
As with anywhere, at least be aware of your surroundings especially in crowded places. In Japan, you’re more likely to lose something by leaving it on a bench somewhere than by getting pickpocketed or assaulted.
You’d be hard pressed to find a place with less pickpockets – if you were able to handle Paris, you won’t struggle in Tokyo (let alone the rest of Japan).
I forgot my wallet in the middle of Fukuoka airport next to an escalator (so very easy to grab and just disappear) and it was still there after I realised it 5-10 minutes later once. Doing that in any other major city in Europe and it would be gone after 10 seconds.
That sort of petty crime is rare in Japan. This is a country where people will leave their purse or smartphone on a cafe table to save their spot, and it will be there when they come back, lol.
You would do well to follow Paris metro precautions everywhere though. Just in case. Habits and best practices are there so you don’t have to decide when and where to remember to use them.
Honestly in Japan you could leave you wallet on a bench and expect it to be handed in to the police untouched, you could walk the streets counting your money and not be bothered
Literally a non issue in Japan
You could leave your phone with a 10,000¥ note next to on the ground at a busy train station, and it’s unlikely that even one of the thousands of passersby would touch them. It’s astounding.
(I’m from the SF Bay Area, where an old Motorola flip phone and a $1 bill would be gone from a BART platform in approximately 2.8 seconds).
Japan is an incredibly safe place, as far as crimes go. I still stand by this, however do use due diligence when traveling as you would anywhere. I felt so terrible, but I think I overemphasized this sense of safety to a friend visiting Tokyo, and he left his wallet in a restaurant (it may have fallen out of his pocket? He never figured it out) and when we returned to the restaurant to find it, the front desk had it, but it was completely emptied of all of the cash he had. This was a shock as in my many years of living there I had never had this happen to me, but just be aware of your personal belongings as you would traveling anywhere. As others say, yes, most of the time your things are perfectly safe, but I think a place especially as busy as Tokyo, you just never know! I wouldn’t call it a non-issue, it’s rare, but be mindful.
You’re in for a shock when you are sitting in a cafe or hotel lobby and see someone leave their entire possessions on the table for 10 minutes while they’re out of sight in the bathroom or somewhere else.
General rules to follow when you go somewhere you’re not familiar with/worry about personal item security:
-use a slingbag/travel bag, you hold onto the bag when coming into contact with large crowd of people. Never, EVER keep your phone in back pocket or jacket pocket.
-if you are on your phone constantly, consider getting a case with built-in lanyard secured to your wrist. They need to cut the lanyard before they can yank your phone out and that’s a deterrent to some degree. Pickpockets (esp in streets or mass crowds) want fast and easy targets so they can build up volumes in thefts
-if you are forgetful, force yourself to pad yourself down after spending time at a place or after arriving at a destination for personal effect check. This is a good secondary reminder to see if you forget your items at prior location or somewhere during transit
Source: raver for years, experienced my very own first-hand pickpocket incident, my phone was gone.
It’s not much of a problem in Japan. I’d almost say, I’ve never had more of a pickpocking problem than I did in Paris. Even places like Athens and Beruit didn’t seem to have such a big problem. But here are some general tips for being in big cities.
DO NOT go into a host club or let someone take you to one. People have lost thousands of dollars in these places, and they do target foreigners. You’ll usually know if someone is marking you if they keep saying they know a cheap place to get drinks. . es.
uickly. You don’t really need to avoid tourist areas. At least in terms of pickpockets. Scams, on the other hand, are a different question, but they are the usual tourist scam unless you’re talking about host clubs.
DO NOT go into a host club or let someone take you to one. People have lost thousand of dollars in these places and they do target forieners. You’ll usually know if someone is marking you if they keep saying they know a cheap place to get drinks.
I remember I went to Japan (Osaka, Tokyo, and Kyoto) with a bunch of friends. I flew by myself however and met them at our air B n B, so I was flustered traveling alone overseas for the first time. I converted all my US dollars into Yen and accidentally left all of my yen on top of a pile of sandwiches in the Tokyo airport. It was like $4,000 yen worth of US dollars (I was in my early 20’s and dumb). I think I scrambled for like two hours trying to find my money, freaking out because I figured it was long gone. I finally went back to that sandwich stand remembering that was the last place I had it and lo and behold it was still sitting there, not a dollar unaccounted for. I don’t think you’ll have an issue with people stealing in Japan.
There are none as far as I know. I’ve left iPads on a train. Guess what? People return them. Japan is truly a one of a kind destination.
I’ve never heard of anyone being pickpocketed in Japan