The women’s experience of going out alone at 11 p.m. is not a safe one. Women’s safety questions, deserted streets and the risk of getting into trouble are all factors for them to be reluctant to travel alone at night. In contrast, an Indian woman living in Japan, she said, felt very safe when she went out alone for a walk at night.
She is Sheetal, who is currently living in Japan, posted a video of herself walking alone on a quiet Japanese street at around 11 p.m., which got people’s attention.
She was walking in a relatively quiet area with few people around in the video, Sheetal said. She said she felt safe out there in the late hours, and there were no crowds. That experience inspired her to reflect on how the feeling of safety can affect women’s ability to move around on their own.
Sheetal said that in Japan, she did not have to be constantly checking the time before stepping out. She said that, whether it was 11 am or 11 pm, she could go out without getting as anxious as many women do with travelling alone after dark.
If she was an Indian woman, the experience was, for her, a great deal more than that. She talked about how freedom to step out late at night is, to be able to walk out the door and no longer be worried about how safe the neighborhood is.
But the discussion did not set Japan up as an all crime-free country. Sheetal acknowledged Japan has its own challenges and shortcomings. Her comments were more about her personal experience and how safe she felt while walking out at night.
A little bit of the video helped to ignite a wider conversation on social media about women’s safety, independence and the freedom to travel at night. Many people had the same perspective that walking alone at night without fear is crucial to quality of life.
On one user's perspective, being able to go out at night is a “luxury of freedom” and for women in some places there may not always be the same confidence when travelling alone after dark.
But others were more balanced. One comment author said that even if Japan is a relatively safe country, it is not completely free of crime. Crimes against women can occur and being cautious is still important even in places that are considered relatively safe.
The conversation also brought up safety in Indian cities. Some users said there are places in India too, for women, where they can find a comfortable late-night atmosphere. One commenter mentioned Vashi in Navi Mumbai and said people can walk around and visit restaurants until midnight, but it won’t be a place you feel unsafe.
The divergent opinions highlight how perceptions of safety differ depending on where the person is, how the person experiences life in the space and what the local environment is like. Women’s independence can be very much dependent on the ability to make their daily decisions based on convenience rather than fear.
Sheetal’s video ultimately became more about a single late-night walk and less about women’s mobility in general. Her experience in Japan has led social media users to discuss what makes women feel safe, whether cities can offer more freedom after dark, and how public spaces can help to make everybody feel more welcomed.
