Living in Japan as a foreign woman

5 comments

1. I’ve been living here for 13 years now. In general, gender roles are a lot more traditional here and especially some older people have ridiculously backwards views. That said, as a foreigner you can exempt yourself from a lot of it. They kind of expect you to be different anyways.

   While sex crimes are (sadly) a thing, day-to-day life here is a lot less stressful.

   I have never been catcalled in Japan. When I’ve been out and about, men have approached me, but were never aggressive or persistent when I turned them down. These are obviously only my personal experiences, but honestly I’m very happy to have spent my 20s in Japan.

   Two things that get mentioned a lot to all women (whether Japanese or foreign) is to get an apartment *not* on the ground floor and one that has auto-lock (a locked entrance door to the building in addition to your appartment door), because there are weird people here, too.

   But as said, in general, I feel a lot safer in Japan than in Germany, especially at night.

2. Groping is a problem in Japan, so watch out for that. Japan is pretty safe, so no worries about getting robbed physically. Please do not bring these “woke western” ideas to Japan. The other dude got most of it down.

3. I have been living in Japan since 2014 and as a child too and I even lived on the first floor and never had a problem. I think it depends on the area where you live.

   I‘ve had experiences with being followed or asked out randomly, but I have never been scared. Even in my party days, where I would walk home tipsy at 3am I felt safe. I have had my drink spiked too (by a foreigner tho) and thank god I knew something was wrong and took a taxi home right away. Listening to your instinct and common sense will tell you.

   I feel much safer here too than in other countries. If you dress a liiiittle revealing, some will stare, but not say anything. I‘m in Tokyo tho. Before I briefly lived in the countryside and was mainly looked at because there was almost no foreigner, not necessarily as a woman.

4. The average stay for a western woman is 1-2 years.

   The average stay for a western man is 25 to life

5. As other commenters mentioned here, safety wise, Japan is a great place to live! On the social scene also I have never really felt unsafe (dating, making new friends).

   There are other things that you should be aware of though. Sexism in the workplace is much worse here on average than in the US for example, especially as you get older. In your twenties it may look like being asked to do lots of menial, admin tasks that your male colleagues aren’t. Later in the years it could be higher risk of getting passed up for promotion because they fear you will get pregnant (esp. If you are married) or because you took maternity leave.

   This is something that corporate Japan is working on, but is decades behind on compared to the western world, imo.