Prefectural police
In the law enforcement system in Japan, prefectural police are prefecture-level law enforcement agencies responsible for policing, law enforcement, and public security within their respective prefectures of Japan. Although prefectural police are, in principle, regarded as municipal police, they are mostly under the central oversight and control of the National Police Agency.
As of 2020, the total strength of the prefectural police is approximately 260,000 sworn officers and 28,400 civilian staff, a total of 288,400 employees.
History
In the Empire of Japan, territorial police forces were organised as departments of police of each prefectural offices. They were placed under complete centralized control, with the Police Affairs Bureau of the Home Ministry at their core.After the surrender of Japan, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers regarded this centralized police system as undemocratic. During the occupation of Japan, the principle of decentralisation was introduced by the 1947 Police Law. Cities and large towns had their own municipal police services, and the National Rural Police was responsible for smaller towns, villages and rural areas. However, most Japanese municipalities were too small to have an effectively large police force, so sometimes they were unable to deal with large-scale violence. In addition, excessive fragmentation of the police organisation reduced the efficiency of police activities.
As a response to these problems, complete restructuring created a more centralized system under the 1954 amended Police Law. All operational units except for the Imperial Guard were reorganized into the prefectural police departments for each prefecture and the National Police Agency was established as the central coordinating agency for these police departments.
Organisation
Each prefectural police department comprises a police authority and operational units: Prefectural Public Safety Commissions and Prefectural Police Headquarters.Prefectural Public Safety Commission
Prefectural Public Safety Commissions are administrative committees established under the jurisdiction of prefectural governors to provide citizen oversight for police activities. A committee consists of three members in an ordinary prefecture and five members in urban prefectures. The members of prefectural public safety commission are appointed by the governor with the consent of the prefectural assembly.Prefectural Police Headquarters
In Tokyo, the Prefectural Police Headquarters specifically refers to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Also, Hokkaido Prefectural Police Headquarters is known as, and those in Ōsaka and Kyoto Prefectures are known as, and are distinguished from other Prefectural Police Headquarters.The Chiefs of Prefectural police headquarters are appointed officials at the top of the chain of command in each Prefectural Police Headquarters. In the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, the name of Superintendent General is used.
These police departments are responsible for every police actions within their jurisdiction in principle, but most important activities are regulated by the National Police Agency. Police officers whose rank are higher than Assistant commissioner #Japan are salaried by the national budget even if they belong to local police departments. Designation and dismissal of these high-ranking officers are delegated to the National Public Safety Commission.
Each Prefectural police headquarters contains administrative departments corresponding to those of the bureaus of the National Police Agency as follows:
- Police administration department
- Criminal investigation department
- Traffic department
- Security department
- Community safety department
There are some 289,000 police officers nationwide, about 97% of whom were affiliated with Prefectural Police Headquarters.
Community policing
In the Japanese police, community policing is treated as being close to crime prevention, and in rural prefectural police, community safety departments in charge of crime prevention sometimes concurrently handle community policing. Community policing officers are organised into several police stations. Each station includes the following sections:- Police administration section
- Traffic section
- Security section
- Community police affairs section
- Community safety section
- Criminal investigation section
These community policing officers are supported by the community police department or the community safety department of the prefectural police headquarters. In addition to the administration of the police radio networks, they provide inter-regional patrol units and air support: automobile patrols and a police aviation unit, and many other assets.
Traffic policing
Originally traffic policing was mainly done by community policing officers. However, with the progress of motorization since the 1950s, traffic accidents have increased dramatically, resulting in the so-called traffic war, the system of traffic police was also strengthened.From the mid-1960s, mobile patrol units were installed at several PPHs, and in 1972 they were installed at all traffic departments of the PPHs as Mobile Traffic Units. Traffic cars and police motorcycles are deployed in these units. And as the development of the expressway advanced, the establishment of the Highway patrol#Japan was also decided in 1971.
Criminal investigation
In the Empire of Japan, the criminal investigation was presided over by prosecutors, like the ministère public does in French law. With the 1947 Police Law and the 1948 Code of Criminal Procedure, the responsibility of investigation has been defined to be uniquely assigned to police officers. In order to fulfil this responsibility, criminal investigation departments or criminal investigation bureaus were set up in each police organisation. After the establishment of the 1954 amended Police Law, these departments are supervised by the Criminal Affairs Bureau of the National Police Agency.Criminal investigation departments or criminal investigation bureaus maintain two investigation divisions, an organised crime investigation division, a mobile investigation unit, and an identification division. The mobile investigation units are first responders for initial criminal investigations, distributed among the region with unmarked cars. The Special Investigation Team are specialised detective units of the first investigation divisions, well acquainted with new technology and special tactics including tactical capabilities. They are mandated for critical incidents except for terrorism, but in some rural but well-versed prefectural police like Aomori Prefectural Police, these detectives can form a counterterrorism task force together with uniformed officers and riot specialists.
Public security
In the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, the jurisdiction for public security policing is divided into the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Public Security Bureau and Security Bureau, being responsible for investigation activities and security forces operations, respectively. In other PPHs, their security departments are in charge of all public security policing matters; but in the departments, they are divided in the same way as they are done by the MPD. They are supervised by the Security Bureau of the National Police Agency.Within their security departments or bureaus, each PPH maintains Riot Police Units, which serve as a rapid reaction force capable of fulfilling riot police, police tactical unit, and search and rescue roles. Full-time riot police can also be augmented by regular police trained in riot duties.
Counterterrorism operations are also the affairs of the security departments. The Special Assault Teams are the national-level units and Riot Police Unit#Specialist squads are the local units. These units are established within the RPU basically, but the SAT of the TMPD and Osaka PPH are under direct control of their Security Bureau or Department.
Ranks
Police officers are divided into nine ranks:| Status | Police ranks | Comparable military ranks | Representative job title | Rank insignia | Shoulder Cords |
| Commissioner General | No counterpart | The chief of the NPA | |||
| Superintendent General | General | The chief of the TMPD | |||
| Senior commissioner | Lieutenant general | Deputy commissioner general, deputy superintendent general, the chief of a regional police bureau and the chief of a PPH | |||
| Police commissioner | Major general | The chief of a PPH | |||
| Assistant Commissioner | Colonel | The chief of a police station | |||
| Local police personnel | Superintendent | Lieutenant colonel | The chief of a small or middle police station, the vice commanding officer of a police station and commander of a riot police unit | ||
| Local police personnel | Chief inspector | Major or captain | Squad commander in a police station and leader of a riot company | ||
| Local police personnel | Inspector | Captain or lieutenant | Squad sub-commander in a police station and leader of a riot platoon | ||
| Local police personnel | Police sergeant | Warrant officer or Sergeant | Field supervisor and leader of a police box | ||
| Local police personnel | Senior police officer | Private first class | Honorary rank of police officers | ||
| Local police personnel | Police officer | Private | A prefectural police officer's career starts from this rank |
The National Police Agency Commissioner General holds the highest position of the Japanese police. His title is not a rank, but rather denotes his position as head of the NPA. On the other hand, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Superintendent General represents not only the highest rank in the system but also assignment as head of the TMPD.
Equipment
Uniform
In the pre-war period, police officers wore jackets with a stand-up collar. In 1946, the jacket was changed to four-buttons, open-collar style with vent and in 1950, a new police duty belt to wear gun and baton was adopted. But at this point, the uniforms of the National Rural Police and the municipal police differed in details.During a reorganization in 1954, uniforms were to be unified across the country, but because that would take time, only the class chapter was unified at this time. After that, in 1956, a new uniform was adopted. The jacket became the turned-down collar style with three buttons, and the vent was done away with. Also, at this time, the summer clothes became grey, but in 1968 it was changed to greyish blue. On 1 April 1994, current uniform design was adopted across all of Japan.
Through the campaign against the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security Between [the United States and Japan] at the end of the 1960s, helmets and protective gear for riot police officers were improved. On the other hand, general police officers were wearing blade-deflecting vests under uniforms so that they would not be noticeable, but since 2005, a strong stab vest to overlay on the uniform was adopted. And in the case of gun violence, bulletproof vests and helmets are also equipped. Ordinary police officers, riot police officers, SWAT detectives, and counter-terrorism operators use different vests of different standards.
Service weapon
In the pre-war period, most Japanese law enforcement officials only had a sabre. Only some elite detectives, bodyguards, or tactical units such as the Emergency Service Unit of the TMPD were issued pistols. The FN Model 1910 or Colt Model 1903 were used for open-carry uses, and Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket or FN M1905 for concealed carry. During the Occupation, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers suggested them to be equipped with firearms. Because of the insufficient stocks and lack of domestically produced handguns, Japanese police started to receive service pistols leased from the Allies from 1949, and by 1951, all officers were issued pistols.In the beginning, the makes and models of these sidearms varied, but M1911 pistols and M1917 revolvers, Smith & Wesson Military & Police and Colt Official Police were issued as the mostly standard sidearms. The.38 calibre revolvers were well-received, but.45 calibre handguns were too large to carry for somewhat small officers, especially women. And M1917 revolvers in particular were obsolete, deteriorated significantly, and so malfunction or reduced accuracy had been a problem. As a response to these issues, the National Rural Police Headquarters started to import small .38 Special calibre revolvers such as Smith & Wesson Chiefs Special and Colt Detective Special. During the 1960s, procurement began to migrate to the domestic Minebea "New Nambu" M60. When the production of the M60 was completed in the 1990s, deployment of small semi-automatic pistols was considered, but this plan was abandoned after small numbers of SIG Sauer P230 were deployed. Finally, imports from the United States were resumed, with S&W M37 and M360 revolvers having been purchased for uniformed officers. Their duty ammo is the Remington 158 grain lead round nose. And some elite detectives, bodyguards, or counter-terrorism units such as the Special Assault Team being equipped with 9×19mm Parabellum calibre semi-automatic pistols such as the Heckler & Koch USP.
From sometime in the 1970s, the Special Armed Police introduced Heckler & Koch MP5A5/SD6/K submachine guns. From 2002, local counter-terrorism units were started to be equipped with MP5F, and there are also assault rifles in the SAT and urban AFS units. Tactical units of crime branches also introduced a semi-automatic pistol-caliber carbine variant of MP5K.
Initially, the sniper team was established in the 1960s, the Howa Golden Bear has been used as a sniper rifle, then, it has been updated to the Howa M1500. In the Special Assault Teams, Heckler & Koch PSG1 and L96A1 also been deployed.
For Japanese police, service pistols are generally left at work when they are not on duty.
Transportation
Ground
In Japan, there are about 40,000 police vehicles nationwide with the most common patrol cruisers being Toyota Crowns, Subaru Legacys and similar large sedans, although small compact and micro "keI" cars are used by rural police boxes and in city centers where they are much more maneuverable. Pursuit vehicles depend on prefectures with the Honda NSX, Subaru Impreza, Subaru Legacy, Mitsubishi Lancer, Nissan Skyline, Mazda RX-7, and Nissan Fairlady Z are all used in various prefectures for highway patrols and pursuit uses.With the exception of unmarked vehicles, all PPHs vehicles are painted and marked in the same ways. Ordinary police vehicles are painted black and white with the upper parts of the vehicle painted white. Motorcycles are usually all white. Vehicles for riot police units are painted blue and white, and especially vehicles for the Rescue Squads of the TMPD are painted green and white.
Aviation
In Japan, the deployment of police helicopters began in 1960. They are extensively used for traffic reporting, searches for suspects, search and rescue, airlift, and other missions. Approximately 80 police helicopters are operated nationwide. Some helicopters are equipped with stabilised TV camera and microwave link systems.Watercraft
of Japan are divided into five groups: 23-meter type, 20-meter type, 17-meter type, 12-meter type, 8-meter type. As of 2014, 159 vessels are deployed nationwide. Since the Japan Coast Guard is in charge of law enforcement outside ports, police watercraft are primarily used to patrol ports and rivers of Japan|rivers], though they are sometimes also used to assist land-based units or patrol islands.List of prefectural police departments
All Prefectural Police Headquarters, except for the Hokkaidō Prefectural Police Department and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, are under the central coordination for operations monitoring and wide area investigation by the Regional Police Bureaus of the National Police Agency:- Hokkaido Prefecture
- Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department
- Tōhoku region
- * Aomori Prefecture
- * Iwate Prefecture
- * Miyagi Prefecture
- * Akita Prefecture
- * Yamagata Prefecture
- * Fukushima Prefecture
- Kantō region
- * Ibaraki Prefecture
- * Tochigi Prefecture
- * Gunma Prefecture
- * Saitama Prefecture
- * Chiba Prefecture
- * Kanagawa Prefecture
- * Niigata Prefecture
- * Yamanashi Prefecture
- * Nagano Prefecture
- * Shizuoka Prefecture
- Chūbu region
- * Toyama Prefecture
- * Ishikawa Prefecture
- * Fukui Prefecture
- * Gifu Prefecture
- * Aichi Prefectural Police Department
- * Mie Prefecture
- Kansai region
- * Shiga Prefecture
- * Kyoto Prefecture
- * Osaka Prefecture
- * Hyogo Prefecture
- * Nara Prefecture
- * Wakayama Prefecture
- Chūgoku region
- * Tottori Prefecture
- * Shimane Prefecture
- * Okayama Prefecture
- * Hiroshima Prefecture
- * Yamaguchi Prefecture
- * Tokushima Prefecture
- * Kagawa Prefecture
- * Ehime Prefecture
- * Kochi Prefecture
- Kyūshū Regional Police Bureau
- * Fukuoka Prefecture
- * Saga Prefecture
- * Nagasaki Prefecture
- * Kumamoto Prefecture
- * Oita Prefecture
- * Miyazaki Prefecture
- * Kagoshima Prefecture
- * Okinawa Prefecture
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