Section 1: Police Organization

1 Public Safety Commission System

The Public Safety Commission System serves a significant role in ensuring the democratic operation and political neutrality of the police, and the National Public Safety Commission (NPSC) was set up on a national level to supervise the NPA, while Prefectural Public Safety Commissions (PPSC) were set up at prefectural levels to supervise the prefectural police. In addition, the Minister of State is appointed as the Chairman of the NPSC in order to coordinate the two requirements of ensuring the political neutrality of the police and clarifying the administrative responsibilities of the Cabinet in relation to public safety.

## 2 National and Prefectural Police Organization

In contrast to the prefectural police that assume centralized enforcement duties, the NPA, as a national agency, formulates police systems and also conducts police operations regarding cases involving national public safety, undertakes the administration of matters which form the foundation of police activities such as police education and training, police communications, criminal identification as well as the development of police administration. In addition, as of April 1, 2013, along with police headquarters, police academies and other facilities, there were 1,173 police stations in the 47 prefectural police forces.

## Section 2: Public Safety Commission Activities

1 National Public Safety Commission (NPSC)

In accordance with the Police Act and other laws, the NPSC supervise the NPA by indicating all-encompassing policies and undertaking administrative tasks that fall within the scope of its authority, such as the establishment of NPSC Regulations, appointment of or taking disciplinary action against local senior police officers (officers among prefectural police organizations ranked Assistant Commissioner and higher), confirmation of the relevancy of practical objectives and requirements when designating a designated Boryokudan (organized crime group), etc. It also gives guidance to the NPA concerning measures to prevent the various cases of misconduct by police personnel. During 2012, the NPSC established 14 NPSC rules including the “Regulations concerning the Partial Revision of Enforcement Regulations governing the Act on Prevention of Unjust Acts by Organized Crime Group Members”.

Although the NPSC usually convenes regular meetings every week on Thursdays, other than regular meetings, extraordinary meetings, such as the meeting held on September 1, 2012 to discuss FY2013 NPA budget request proposals, are also convened. In addition, the NPSC strives to maintain an understanding of the state of public safety and police operations through the mutual exchange of views between members of the commission, and by listening to reports from the NPA, conducting visits by NPSC members to nationwide locations, exchanging views with PPSC members and conducting on-site inspections of police activities.

Regular meeting of the NPSC

Case: In January 2013, the Chairman of the NPSC visited Fukuoka prefecture to inspect the site of an attempted murder incident involving the use of firearms in Kita-Kyushu city. The Chairman offered words of encouragement to officers of dispatch units from various prefectural police forces engaged in measures against organized crime, and exchanged views with the Prefectural Governor, the Mayor of Fukuoka City, the Mayor of Kita-Kyushu City and other officials.

NPSC Chairman (left) encouraging dispatch unit officers