Sending your children overseas can be worrisome. However, our participants might find some relief in knowing that even with the huge population, from a crime perspective, Japan is a relatively safe country.
Nothing is a 100% but according to nationmaster.com which is comparable to other sites, for 2014 Japan has a crime index of 12.8 while the US is at 55.8. This is not to say America is high, well, maybe, but rather than seeing it that way let's think of Japan as being really low. Or so says Wikipedia when comparing Japan to other industrialized countries. Wikipedia also claims in 1989 Japan experienced only 1.3 robberies and 1.1 murders per 100,000 population while Japanese authorities solve 75.9% of robbery cases and 95.9% of homicide cases.Â
When you compare this to Sweden, which is one of the world's worst countries and has become terrible because in 2010 the BBC reported Sweden has 63 rapes per every 100,000 people.  So compared to Sweden the US is great and Japan is like heaven on earth. This is not by accident. This is part of the reason we want to send our children to Japan in the first place so that they can pick up the traits that make their society safe and bring that home.
While crime is relatively low, what about drug use? Is Japan safe from a drug use perspective? I am happy to say Japan has very little illegal drug use. In the countryside it is unheard of and in the big cities still relatively rare among youth.
According to nationmaster.com cannabis use in 2009 in the US was 13.7% while Japan is listed at .05%. In 25 years in Japan an American male never once saw anyone smoking marijuana nor met one person intoxicated on marijuana or any other drug and neither had his teenage daughter.</p>
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