Having lived in 3rd world I do find food safety regulations to be a bad thing. You can get sick as rarely as you do in regulated countries by following some simple rules in places without regulations. I go to places where I can watch the food being prepared. And make sure it is hot when you eat it. Simple things like this.

I have not gotten sick in places like Syria, Iraq, Philippines, etc any more than I do in the US by following simple rules. Yes you have to pay attention but to be honest, you should be applying these rules in USA too, because food inspector and zoning mostly there to protect big business through barrier of entry; they don't actually do that good a job of inspecting or enforcing the rules.

The plus here is in places without these regulation the street is full of these tasty food vendors, even more than Japan. It is well worth the lack of safety regulations.