page_title: Geography of firefighting
section_title: Japan
hierarchical_section_title: Geography of firefighting / Japan
caption_attribution_description: Tokyo fire department trucks, Jiyugaoka, Tokyo, Japan.
context_page_description: As firefighting has a rich history throughout the world, traditions in this profession vary widely from country to country.
context_section_description: Japan's first fire service was founded in 1629 during the Edo era, and was called Hikeshi (Japanese: 火消し, lit. fire extinguisher). During the Meiji Period, when Japan opened its doors to the West, the Hikeshi was merged into the police department. During this time period, pumps were imported and domestically produced, and modern firefighting strategies were introduced. In 1948, after World War II, a municipality fire service system was established.
  Today, fire services are organized on a city/town/village basis. There are 894 fire headquarters (Japanese: 消防本部) and 3,598 volunteer fire corps (Japanese: 消防団). These have a total of 155,000 active career firefighters and 21,000 vehicles with 4,800 fire houses; 920,000 volunteer firefighters share an additional 51,000 trucks. Overall supervision is under the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
caption: Vehicles of the Tokyo Fire Department.
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