I've been held at gun point and knife point in Moscow, been in some really scary area in the mountains in Serbia. Visited countless shady area in many countries, worked security on the graveyard shift in the drug dealing and prostitute area. I've never been attacked or robbed, I talked my way out of a lot of crazy situations and just avoided others.

Am I lucky? Maybe... I've shot guns and really like it, but I still don't see why somebody would carry a gun.

Now I live in Japan and I have never felt that safe in my whole life. You could leave your bike unlock anywhere for a couple of hours and it would be there untouched. I use to carry around a huge Kryptonite lock, now I use the dollar store one and feel ok about leaving my bike locked outside the mall.

It seems that if you mind your business, people leave you alone wherever you are. There has been some cases of attack on cyclist, but it's so random. You would have the same chance of getting mugged coming out of an ATM.