The Economist Intelligence Unit announces the Safe Cities Index 2017

NEC-sponsored report names Tokyo the world's safest city

Tokyo, October 12, 2017 – It was announced today that Tokyo has been named the safest city in the world once again in the Safe Cities Index 2017, a report compiled by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU; the research and analysis division of The Economist Group of Britain) and sponsored by NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701). Tokyo previously earned the overall number one spot in 2015.

This EIU report evaluates the relative safety of 60 cities around the world based on an index composed of 49 indicators split across four categories: digital security, health security, infrastructure security, and personal security. Interviews are also conducted with 14 experts in the field, thereby making it possible to understand improvements in urban safety from various angles.

Although Tokyo earned the highest score in digital security and made improvements in health security, it did fall out of the top ten in the infrastructure security category.

America's deteriorating infrastructure is reflected in the rankings, with San Francisco being the only U.S. city to claim a spot in the top twenty of this category. All other cities ranked in the top ten for the infrastructure security category are either in Europe or the Asia-Pacific region.

NEC continues to focus on Solutions for Society and is striving to strengthen its global safety business by utilizing technologies such as face recognition technology boasting the world's highest recognition accuracy and video analysis technology to contribute to the realization of a safe and secure society. NEC's sponsorship of the Safe Cities Index 2017 is part of these efforts, and this is the second time it has served as sole sponsor of the report following the Safe Cities Index 2015.