Hiroshima

Is Hiroshima safe?

Yes. Hiroshima is a very safe city to visit, and we score it 89 out of 100, level with Fukuoka and Tokyo. Police in Hiroshima Prefecture, home to about 2.7 million people, recorded 27 homicide cases in 2025, a Japanese count that includes attempts, and just one street robbery all year.

The prefecture is calmer than Japan as a whole. It recorded 543 criminal offences per 100,000 people in 2025, against a national average of 625 and 960 in Osaka, according to the National Police Agency. Hiroshima City had 7,233 offences, about 620 per 100,000 residents, and 2,002 of them were in Naka ward, the downtown area around the Peace Memorial Park and the main bar streets. Most were thefts. What a visitor should actually plan for is the weather: heavy rain, typhoons and, less often, earthquakes.

Theft, touts and nightlife

Street theft is unusual. Across the whole prefecture in 2025, police counted 5 pickpocketings, 7 bag snatchings and 75 thefts of bags left unattended. Bicycles are the main target, with 3,513 stolen, so lock any hire bike to a stand.

The nightlife in Naka ward is busy but small next to Tokyo or Osaka. The UK Foreign Office warns that drink spiking and huge credit card bills are a risk in nightlife districts across Japan, and that some British visitors have been arrested after disputes over inflated bills. The rule is the same as anywhere: do not follow street touts, and see a menu with prices and the cover charge before you order.

Walking at night

Central Hiroshima is easy to walk after dark. Gallup's 2025 Global Safety Report found that 78% of Japanese adults feel safe walking alone at night, a lower share than Japan's crime figures would suggest. Police recorded 97 rapes and 153 indecent assaults across the prefecture in 2025, about 9 per 100,000 people, similar to Fukuoka. Groping on crowded trains is the issue the FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary highlights for women. Police advice is to shout at the person and ask staff or other passengers for help.

Rain, landslides and earthquakes

This is Hiroshima's weak point, and it is mostly about water. The city spreads up into steep hills, and in August 2014 a burst of extreme rain in the early hours triggered debris flows and landslides in the Asaminami and Asakita wards that left 74 people dead or missing, according to the prefectural government. Four years later the July 2018 heavy rain hit the whole prefecture. The prefecture counts 153 deaths, 44 of them later deaths linked to the disaster, and 5 people still missing. The worst damage was east of the centre, in Kure (30 dead), Saka (21) and Higashihiroshima (20); Hiroshima City counted 28 dead and 2 missing. The rainy season in June and July and typhoons from June to December bring the same risk back most years.

For a visitor staying in the centre, the danger is small but the disruption is real. Trains, trams and the ferries to Miyajima can stop during warnings. For a short stay:

• Turn on emergency alerts on your phone and install the Japan Tourism Agency's Safety tips app.
• During heavy rain warnings, stay away from rivers, steep slopes and hillside hiking trails.
• Keep a spare day before a flight in typhoon season.

Earthquake risk is moderate by Japanese standards. The government's J-SHIS model gives central Hiroshima a 25% chance of shaking of intensity 6-lower or stronger within 30 years, higher than Kyoto's 15% but below Osaka's 31% and Tokyo's 47%. The 2001 Geiyo earthquake (magnitude 6.7) killed one person in the prefecture and caused slope failures over a wide area, and the Earthquake Research Committee notes that reclaimed land along the coast suffered most in the 1905 Geiyo quake.

Roads, air and health

Roads are safe and getting safer. The prefecture recorded 58 road deaths in 2025, the fewest since records began in 1948, and Hiroshima City 18, about 1.5 per 100,000 people. Cyclists are the exception: 11 died in 2025, the most in a decade, 8 of them elderly. From 1 September 2026 the default speed limit on narrow residential streets across Japan fell from 60 to 30 km/h, which matters for anyone renting a car.

The air is clean. Hiroshima City's monitoring stations measured annual PM2.5PM2.5Tiny airborne particles 2.5 micrometres across or smaller. They reach deep into the lungs and are the air pollutant most linked to early death.More in the glossary of 6.9 to 9.8 µg/m³ in the 2024 financial year, close to Kyoto's levels. The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary rates Japanese medical facilities as high quality but expensive, and warns that summers are very hot and humid, often above 35°C in July and August. Carry water and do the Peace Park and Miyajima early in the day.

For the rest of the country, see our Japan page, and for a comparison, Osaka.

How we scored it

Violent crime (95), traffic (91) and theft and scams (89) are near the top of our scale, and walking at night (89) matches Fukuoka. Health (88) sits level with Kyoto on clean air and hot summers. Natural hazards (68) is the weakest factor because of deadly rain-driven landslides, typhoons and a moderate earthquake risk.