I've lived and worked in San Francisco and downtown San Jose, been to NYC many times, etc. I felt the safest in Tokyo at 11PM than any of those other places.

I've lived and worked in San Francisco and downtown San Jose, been to NYC many times, etc. I felt the safest in Tokyo at 11PM than any of those other places. The only places I felt a bit uncomfortable at night were super touristy areas, like Shinjuku's Kabukicho, because some bars/clubs have "hawks" or "tauts" that will try to get you to come inside, where they may drug/rob you. Usually Nigerians, but I saw some Japanese doing it as well. Just need to have some street smarts not to go with random strangers into places like that.