## 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 National Police Agency (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 Chairperson 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, 2014, along with police headquarters, police academies, and other facilities, there were 1,169 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 supervises 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). It also gives guidance to the NPA concerning measures to prevent the various cases of misconduct by police personnel. During 2013, the NPSC established 16 NPSC rules including the regulation on handling corpses.

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, 2013 that accompanied implementation of the 2013 National Police Agency Integrated Disaster Prevention Drill. 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, exchanging views with PPSC members and conducting on-site inspections of police activities.

Regular meeting of the NPSC

Case: In November 2013, the Chairperson of the NPSC visited the Internet Hotline Center Japan, and was briefed on reports received of unlawful/harmful actions, reports made to police, and circumstances regarding requests for deletion submitted to website administrators.

The Chairperson of the NPSC inspects the Internet Hotline Center Japan