Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Public Security Bureau


The Public Security Bureau is a bureau of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department in charge of public security with jurisdiction over the Tokyo metropolis. It has a force of more than 2,000 officers. The bureau reports to the Deputy Superintendent General.
In the Japanese police organization, only the Metropolitan Police Department becomes "the bureau" where the security police branch becomes independent. In other prefectural police forces, the Public Security Section and Foreign Affairs Division are installed in a Security Department. Tokyo is seen as an exception since it had been working with the Japanese National Police Agency for the longest time since they share the same location.
The PSB is not the Japanese equivalent of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, despite some claims that it is. It does not concern with ordinary criminal activities. The main focus of the PSB are activities which threaten national security and therefore, their work is similar to Special Branches of British and Commonwealth police forces.

History

The establishment of the PSB started on December 19, 1945 when the Security Division was established in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. In February 1946, the SD was changed to the Public Security Division. In April 1952, the PSD's first and second security departments were established with the former taking charge of the TMPD's riot police units while the latter carried out security information operations. In April 1957, the TMPD's Security Department 1, Security Department 2, and Metropolitan Police Department Reserve were renamed as the Security Department, the Public Security Department and the Riot Police. After the September 11 attacks in the US, the PSB revamped its structure to include three intelligence sections in 2002.
The PSB had been mobilized to investigate all Aum Shinrikyo facilities after the deadly sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. Following the discovery of an Aum cultist who had been employed by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force after sensitive military information had been leaked out, the PSB had investigated the matter. The PSB had been the leading agency to investigate reports that Aum Shinrikyo had acquired names of 3,000 Honda executives and sensitive data from government ministries and other important facilities via Aum-created software.
The TMPD announced on November 2, 2020 that the foreign affairs division will be revamped to have two separate units to deal with intelligence matters concerning China and North Korea, giving it a total of four separate units. On March 19, 2021, the PSB completed reorganizing its units and their work would start by April 1, 2021 with 30 more officers assigned to the new units.
On December 25, 2022, the PSB produced a promotional video and starred Rena Nōnen aka Non on the dangers of foreign-backed corporate espionage.
On September 30, 2024, the PSB will create a unit by April 2025 to tackle lone wolf terrorists known as the Number 3 Public Safety Unit. The Number 1 Public Safety Section will be merged with the Number 2 Public Safety Section to form the Number 1 Public Safety Unit. Number 3 Public Safety Section will be renamed to Number 2 Public Safety Unit. It's also reported that the functions of the General Affairs Division, which is to collect information on lone offenders, will be transferred to the reorganized Public Security Section.
In response to concerns raised in the Okawahara Kakoki Incident, the PSB created the Public Security Investigation and Guidance Office through the Public Security and General Affairs Division.https://www.sankei.com/article/20251001-IMRJNZPW2ZLIFBI3276BHW3O7E/

Cases

The PSB had failed in securing a Russian man wanted for spying in Japanese territory as a suspected agent of the SVR since the 1960s when he left Japan in 1995 and reentered the country several times before being unaccounted for when the spy used a Japanese name to obtain a Japanese passport in Vienna.
An ex-Japanese Air Self-Defense Forces warrant officer had been investigated by the PSB in 2002 for divulging military secrets under the Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement to a Russian GRU operative, who was identified as Aleksei Shchelkonogov. Three activists of the Tachikawa Jieitai Kanshi Tentomura had been said to be prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International when they had arrested by police with the PSB investigating them for conducting anti-war activities after illegally entering an SDF housing complex in Tachikawa in 2004.
PSB officers had been involved in the arrest of former Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office official Toshihiko Shimizu, accused of providing classified data to a Russian embassy official, supposedly posing as a diplomat in 2008. under the.
On December 15, 2020, PSB officers investigated the activities of a South Korean man living in Tokyo accused of hacking into the Chongryon website and the Korea News Service.

Scandals

After a discovery of sophisticated radios by police during a raid on a JRCL Revolutionary Marxist Faction safehouse on April 10, 1998, PSB officials had reorganized their communications network to better safeguard it against unwanted intrusions.
In 2014, a report was made thanks to a leak that PSB officers were conducting covert surveillance activities on Muslims residents living in the Greater Tokyo Area.
In March 2020, the PSB arrested Masaaki Okawara, Junji Shimada and Shizuo Aishima of the Ohkawara Kakohki for exporting spray drying equipment due to concerns that it can be used for making biological weapons, violating the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act. Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office dropped the charges against them in July 2021. In July 2023, an anonymous PSB officer testified that the case against the company was faked; he mentioned that most of the investigators were motivated to have good job evaluations and have good retirement benefits after the case is "solved". In December 2023, the Tokyo District Court ruled the investigation to be illegal because an experiment conducted by the PSB if the exported equipment is able to disinfect. It was reported that information related to the case that are not in favor of prosecutors was not shared. The TMPD and the TDPPO apologized for their conduct in the case in June 2025. In December 2025, the TDPPO decided not to prosecute three PSB officers involved in the case.

Organization

The PSB is structured according to the following:
; General Administration Division
; First Public Security Division
; Second Public Security Division
; Third Public Security Division
; Fourth Public Security Division
; First Foreign Affairs Division
; Second Foreign Affairs Division
; Third Foreign Affairs Division
; Fourth Foreign Affairs Division
; Public Security Mobile Investigation Unit

Training

Prospective PSB officers are trained at the National Police Academy in intelligence gathering techniques.

Known heads of PSB

  • Shigeo Ito
  • Masuo Okamura
  • Norikiyo Hayashi