Which Wards in Tokyo Are Ranked Safest on Japan Neighborhoods?

Japan Neighborhoods ranks Suginami, Setagaya, and Nerima as the safest wards in Tokyo, all receiving an A safety grade. The site presents each ward with a grade and an incidents-per-1,000-residents rate, so you can compare wards on a normalized basis rather than raw incident counts. The rankings are built from recorded incident data reported by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, which means they reflect reported crime rather than unreported incidents or perceived safety.

The top-ranked wards

The site's "Safest Wards in Tokyo" section lists the top five wards with a letter grade and a rate per 1,000 residents:

The pattern is straightforward: lower incidents per 1,000 residents corresponds to a better grade. The three A-grade wards cluster tightly between 4.4 and 4.9, while the B-grade wards start at 5.5 — a visible step up in recorded incidents.

How the grades and rates are presented

Each ward carries two pieces of information:

• A letter grade (A through F) that summarizes safety at a glance.
• An incidents-per-1,000 rate that lets you compare wards of different population sizes fairly.

The site also breaks data down below ward level: it covers 3,110+ Tokyo neighborhoods, draws on seven years of data (2018–2024), and reports 70,081 recorded incidents for 2024. An interactive crime map color-codes neighborhoods by safety grade, and the site links to a list of the 25 safest individual neighborhoods — useful if you want to go finer than the ward level.

The lower end of the ranking

The full list of all 23 wards shows a clear spread beyond the top five. Mid-table wards such as Shinagawa, Itabashi, Edogawa, Nakano, and Arakawa carry B grades, while Sumida drops to C. Several central and nightlife-heavy wards rank lower:

• Minato, Taito, Toshima, Chuo, and Shibuya — D
• Chiyoda and Shinjuku — F

This is worth reading carefully rather than as a simple "avoid" list. Chiyoda and Shinjuku are central, high-activity areas with large daytime and nighttime populations, and Shinjuku in particular concentrates entertainment districts. A low grade there reflects recorded incident volume in a busy area, not necessarily how a quiet residential street feels.

What the rankings can and cannot tell you

The grades are based on recorded police incident data, so keep these limits in mind:

• Reported crime only. Incidents that go unreported do not appear in the data.
• Ward-level averages. A ward grade can mask variation between neighborhoods — which is why the site's neighborhood-level map and its list of the 25 safest neighborhoods are worth checking before deciding.
• Incident volume, not severity. The rate counts incidents; it does not weight them by type or seriousness.

For choosing where to live or stay, treat the ranking as a starting filter: shortlist A- and B-grade wards, then drill into specific neighborhoods on the crime map and cross-check with cost-of-living and property data, which the site also provides by ward.