Brett in Tokyo wrote:
I just asked my Japanese wife, who lived for several years in both London and NYC, what she thinks about your quote here and she says, "This person is completely wrong. Japanese women can safely walk around alone at midnight almost anywhere." Being groped on the train as someone else mentioned above may be a different story, but in general day to day life it is very safe. I guess if you associate with gangsters and prostitutes it might be different, but I wouldn't know.
It was also safe in Nazi Germany for women to walk the streets. As it is in Pyongyang, and Singapore.
Japan is incredibly venal and corrupt. The police have immense powers (you can be held for 23 days w/out being charged), and are not at all accountable.
government officials are regularly caught with their hands in the cookie jar - my favorite story was Shin Kanemaru and Recruit in 1989?, where they needed a shopping cart to move the cash to the awaiting limo.
Japanese do not do things out of any "moral" sense. They do it out of a fear of group retribution. Nanking is evidence enough of that. Ask anybody in any other country in Asia if they think the Japanese are a "non-aggressive" people and you will get a very different answer.
The veneer of "safety" in Japan is exceedingly thin.