420 Million Yen Heist in Taitō Ward—Former Councilor Talks Safety Myths and Reality

Encounter Rate with Penal Code Offenses — 4th Worst Among 23 Wards

A massive heist totaling ¥420 million occurred in Higashi-Ueno, Taito Ward, Tokyo — the same area where I live.

Given the enormous sum involved, the incident shocked local residents deeply.

When I first read the breaking news, I was struck by both surprise and a thought that ran through my mind:

“Another incident in Taito Ward?!”

Taito Ward has often been associated in the media with a dangerous neighborhood, especially during previous incidents like the murder of the Takara-jima couple in 2024 and the case involving Kabuki actor Tsurumatsu Nakamura earlier this year. Headlines often began with:

“In Taito Ward—”

According to the Tokyo Safety Ranking 2025 released by the security company ALSOK on December 26, 2025, Taito Ward ranks 4th worst among Tokyo’s 23 wards in terms of encounter rate with penal code offenses, which measures the number of criminal incidents per resident.

Taito Ward is the smallest of the 23 wards in Tokyo, covering just about 10 square kilometers. Yet somehow, it carries an image of being more dangerous than the statistics alone suggest.

Looking back historically, Taito Ward has long served as the city’s periphery since the Edo period.

It was home to the Yoshiwara red-light district — recently featured in last year’s Taiga drama — as well as temples like Kan’ei-ji and Sensō-ji, shrines, cemeteries of notable figures, and Saruwaka-cho, the center of Kabuki theater. These were areas where people gathered, flowed, and at times, disorder arose.

This tendency became even more pronounced after World War II.

Subsidies for Security Camera Installation Are Double Compared to Other Wards

After the war, black markets emerged around Ueno and Shinobazu Pond, attracting returning soldiers, repatriates, foreigners, and the unemployed. Police presence was limited, and violent clashes between resident foreigners and Japanese yakuza were frequent. That period of postwar chaos likely laid the foundation for the image of

“Taito Ward = dangerous.”

Even as times change, such memories persist as a story that is slow to update, lingering to the present day.

But what about Taito Ward today?

Ueno Station serves as the northern gateway. Ueno Onshi Park hosts cultural landmarks like the Tokyo National Museum, the UNESCO World Heritage–listed National Museum of Western Art, and the Ueno Zoo, famous for its pandas. Asakusa attracts roughly 40 million visitors annually.

There’s the jewelry district lined with gem shops, the so-called Buddhist altar street known for its concentration of altars and Buddhist fittings, the year-end and New Year spectacle of Ameyoko, and areas like Kuramae with its cafes and unique shops — the list of attractions goes on and on.

Everyday life I see includes greeting neighbors in the morning, tourists taking photos, and children playing in the parks — perfectly ordinary scenes of the city.

Community-wide awareness of security has also been steadily rising.

In 2017, Taito Ward enacted an anti-solicitation ordinance to crack down on notorious aggressive touts along Chuo Street. The ward and police collaborate to consult with restaurants and other businesses about protection money issues, and these measures are showing steady results.

From August 2025, Taito Ward doubled its subsidies for security camera installation compared to other wards. With 500 applications currently submitted, this reflects the high level of civic security awareness.

The recent ¥420 million heist is extremely unusual, even on a national scale. Using it as a symbol of daily life in Taito Ward would inevitably distort the true picture of the city.

When fragmented news accumulates, entire communities can be lumped under the label dangerous. We need to pause and consider that structure itself.

Taito Ward is simultaneously a tourist area, a commercial district, and a residential neighborhood.

It has high foot traffic day and night, with many outsiders coming and going. A city that has a structure where incidents can occur is not the same as a city where residents’ daily lives are constantly at risk.

Due to its historical background and geographic characteristics, Taito Ward may simply be a city that is prone to being spoken of in this way.