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Comment by TacticalCoder | Hacker News Reader

> ... they could find this in pretty much any Spanish city

That's a horseload of bullcrap. For a start there are plenty of pickpockets in many spanish cities (not just Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia). Then there are people visiting houses: don't tell me it doesn't happen for I had my house visited by thieves the one time I forgot to put the alarm on (because I had to run to the ER for my daughter was between life and death).

I happen to know both Spain and Japan very well (I've got family in Japan): there's not anywhere near the level of safety you have in Tokyo in spanish cities.

Not even close.

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> That's a horseload of bullcrap.

I agree it'd be hard for almost any other country to match that general sense of "safety" in Japanese society - we've probably all read the stories about wallets full of cash being dutifully handed in to the lost property office, and so on.

But the idea that Spanish towns are seething with pickpockets and everyone is creeping around in fear is also "bullcrap", imo.

My family is from Spain and I've spent a lot of time living and visiting there. Before she passed away, my 90+ year-old mum was out with her friends every single evening - playing cards, walking around the streets, mixing it up with families and small children strolling and playing outside long into the night.

I'm pretty amazed some robbers somehow knew your alarm was off that one time you had to rush out. That was pretty bad luck.

On the other hand Spanish trains don't need women only cars due to the massive amount of dirty chikan ojaji (old guys that love groping women, even underage schoolgirls). Japan is not a paradise either.

But nobody in Japan is actually living.

They are all in a rush to get home or work or school.

I feel sorry how little time they actually get to do things they want to do on their own schedule.

Japanese live for the afterlife, but know there isn't one, so it's coming apart.

You can live a decent life in the Netherlands with working 36 hours a week. And you can also be an individual- there still isn't a real gay pride in Tokyo.

It's funny how these articles always conveniently skip over the most important point: you first have to fill your city with Japanese people.

I don't think this is as absurd as it sounds. Come to the US Midwest. "Wisconsin nice" is a stereotype, and makes us seem a little bit like hicks, but it's real. People really are polite to one another. A friend from one of the coasts observed after a long trip through rural areas by bike: "Nobody tried to kill me."

Sometimes our infrastructure and zoning are awkward, and we're too reliant on cars, but I still think there's hope.

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