Special Assault Team

The **Special Assault Team** (特殊急襲部隊, *Tokushu Kyūshū Butai*, SAT) is a police tactical unit maintained by individual Japanese prefectural police and supervised by the National Police Agency.

The SAT is a national-level counterterrorism unit that cooperates with territorial-level Anti-Firearms Squads and Counter-NBC Terrorism Squads. Most information on the unit has been confidential, its existence officially revealed only in 1996.

The SAT is officially known in Japanese as simply **Special Unit** (特殊部隊, *Tokushu Butai*) and individual teams officially take the name of the police to which they are assigned; an example would be the **Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Special Unit** (警視庁特殊部隊, *Keishicho Tokushu Butai*, Metropolitan Police Department Special Unit) for the SAT unit assigned to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.

## Organization

### Structure

SAT teams are set up at eight prefectural police agencies. In most prefectures they belong to the Riot Police Unit, but in the MPD it is directly under its First Security Division, and the Security Division in the Osaka.

Total strength is about 300 officers. It is said that three teams in the Metropolitan Police Department, two teams in the Osaka Prefectural Police Department, and one team in each of the other Prefectural Police are set up. Each team consists of a command section, an entry section, a sniper support section, and a technical support section.

### Recruitment and training

Members are recruited from Riot Police Units. When the unit was founded, the members were selected from rangers, rescue specialists, snipers and martial artists. It is said that they will be subject to inspection and inspection for officers under 30 years old. In order to maintain physical strength, the period of service is assumed to be approximately 5 years. Graduates are usually transferred to other departments in the Security Bureau, but some are transferred to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the criminal investigation department to introduce their SWAT-based tactics for the department.

Although SAT training is enigmatic, a retired SAP member recalled that Airborne Ranger Courses of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, counter-insurgency, and air assault training had been conducted. Nowadays, SAT has training facilities in six locations nationwide, and training at Yumenoshima is sometimes released to reporters. There were also exchanges with overseas police forces, at least with joint training with the German GSG 9. 10 SAT officers were placed under training by Queensland Police's Specialist Service Branch in Queensland, Australia.

The SAT does joint exercises with the SFGp. The SAT also conducted joint training in 2014 with the Nucleo Operativo Centrale di Sicurezza.

### Equipment

An SAT operator aiming a Heckler & Koch MP5
In addition to standard service handguns, the SAP units used Heckler & Koch P9S pistols as their main sidearms. After being reorganized into the SAT, usage of Heckler & Koch USP and Smith & Wesson Model 3913 have been confirmed, there is information that Glock 19, SIG Sauer P226 and Beretta 92 Vertec are adopted.

The SAT used Heckler & Koch MP5A5, MP5SD6, MP5K submachine guns. There is also information that SAT units have adopted Howa Type 89 assault rifles and M4 carbines.

The Howa Golden Bear, then M1500 as their sniper rifle. The Howa Type 64 rifle was also used as designated marksman rifles. Later on, the Heckler & Koch PSG1 and L96A1 also have been deployed.

SAT teams operate special Heavy Special Armored Vehicle (銃器対策警備車, *Jūki-taisaku-keibi-sha*) and unmarked bulletproof cars.

The first units stood up in the 1970s had its operators forced to initially purchase tactical equipment with their own money through mail-in ads in military magazines.