Imperial Soul Tokyo Police Department (ISTPD)

*"Officers need to understand and sense the noble purpose and meaning of police work; its a vocation of selfless service, compassion and doing good for others as well as on behalf of them as well."*

~ Former Police Commissioner Reiko Masumoto, ISTPD

## Overview

Law enforcement in Japan is provided by the Prefecture Police or basically ISTPD ( Imperial Soul Tokyo P.D.) under the oversight of the National Police Agency or NPA. The NPA is headed by the National Public Safety Commission thus ensuring that Japan's police are an apolitical body and free of direct central government executive control. They are checked by an independent judiciary and monitored by a free and active press

## History

The Japanese government established a European-style civil police system in 1874, under the centralized control of the Police Bureau within the Home Ministry, to put down internal disturbances and maintain order during the Meiji Restoration. By the 1880s, the police had developed into a nationwide instrument of government control, providing support for local leaders and enforcing public morality. They acted as general civil administrators, implementing official policies and thereby facilitating unification and modernization. In rural areas especially, the police had great authority and were accorded the same mixture of fear and respect as the village head. Their increasing involvement in political affairs was one of the foundations of the authoritarian state in Japan in the first half of the twentieth century. The centralized police system steadily acquired responsibilities, until it controlled almost all aspects of daily life, including fire prevention and mediation of labor disputes. The system regulated public health, business, factories, and construction, and it issued permits and licenses. The Peace Preservation Law of 1925 gave police the authority to arrest people for "wrong thoughts". Special Higher Police (Tokko) were created to regulate the content of motion pictures, political meetings, and election campaigns. The Imperial Japanese Army's military police (Kempeitai) and the Imperial Japanese Navy's Tokeitai, operating under their respective services and the justice and home ministries aided the civilian police in limiting proscribed political activity. After the Manchurian Incident of 1931, military police assumed greater authority, leading to friction with their civilian counterparts. After 1937 police directed business activities for the war effort, mobilized labor, and controlled transportation. After Japan's surrender in 1945, occupation authorities in World War II retained the prewar police structure until a new system was implemented and the Diet passed the 1947 Police Law. Contrary to Japanese proposals for a strong, centralized force to deal with postwar unrest, the police system was decentralized. About 1,600 independent municipal forces were established in cities, towns, and villages with 5,000 inhabitants or more, and a National Rural Police was organized by prefecture. Civilian control was to be ensured by placing the police under the jurisdiction of public safety commissions controlled by the National Public Safety Commission in the Office of the Prime Minister. The Home Ministry was abolished and replaced by the less powerful Ministry of Home Affairs, and the police were stripped of their responsibility for fire protection, public health, and other administrative duties. When most of the occupation forces were transferred to Korea in 1950–51, the 75,000 strong National Police Reserve was formed to back up the ordinary police during civil disturbances, and pressure mounted for a centralized system more compatible with Japanese political preferences. The 1947 Police Law was amended in 1951 to allow the municipal police of smaller communities to merge with the National Rural Police. Most chose this arrangement, and by 1954 only about 400 cities, towns, and villages still had their own police forces. Under the 1954 amended Police Law, a final restructuring created an even more centralized system in which local forces were organized by prefectures under a National Police Agency. The revised Police Law of 1954, still in effect in the 1990s, preserves some strong points of the postwar system, particularly measures ensuring civilian control and political neutrality, while allowing for increased centralization. The National Public Safety Commission system has been retained. State responsibility for maintaining public order has been clarified to include coordination of national and local efforts; centralization of police information, communications, and record keeping facilities; and national standards for training, uniforms, pay, rank, and promotion. Rural and municipal forces were abolished and integrated into prefecture forces, which handled basic police matters. Officials and inspectors in various ministries and agencies continue to exercise special police functions assigned to them in the 1947 Police Law.

## Branches of the Imperial Soul Tokyo Police Department

### National Public Safety Commission

The mission of the National Public Safety Commission is to guarantee the neutrality of the police by insulating the force from political pressure and to ensure the maintenance of democratic methods in police administration. The commission's primary function is to supervise the National Police Agency, and it has the authority to appoint or dismiss senior police officers. The commission consists of a chairman, who holds the rank of minister of state, and five members appointed by the prime minister with the consent of both houses of the Diet. The commission operates independently of the cabinet, but liaison and coordination with it are facilitated by the chairman's being a member of that body.

### National Police Agency

As the central coordinating body for the entire police system, the National Police Agency determines general standards and policies; detailed direction of operations is left to the lower echelons. In a national emergency or large-scale disaster, the agency is authorized to take command of prefecture police forces. In 1989 the agency was composed of about 1,100 national civil servants, empowered to collect information and to formulate and execute national policies. The agency is headed by a commissioner general who is appointed by the National Public Safety Commission with the approval of the prime minister. The Central Office includes the Secretariat, with divisions for general operations, planning, information, finance, management, and procurement and distribution of police equipment, and five bureaus.

### Imperial Soul Police Administration Bureau

The Administration Bureau is concerned with police personnel, education, welfare, training, and unit inspections.

### Criminal Investigation Bureau

The Criminal Investigation Bureau is in charge of research statistics and the investigation of nationally important and international cases. This bureau's Safety Department is responsible for crime prevention, combating juvenile delinquency, and pollution control. In addition, the Criminal Investigation Bureau surveys, formulates, and recommends legislation on firearms, explosives, food, drugs, and narcotics. The Communications Bureau supervises police communications systems. There are also nine active field police squads 1st division: Homicide or unregistered weapons. 2nd division: Robbery or sex-related crimes. 3rd division: Controlled substances or organized crime. 4th division: Burglary, kidnapping or blackmail. 5th division: Bombs or explosives. 6th and 8th division: Rapid reaction units. 7th division: Financial crimes. 9th division: Cybercrimes. Two task-force-grouped centers include: Forensic Science Center: Forensic Section (Criminalistics Office). Forensic Biology Office (Medical Examiner Office). Fingerprint Office High-Technology Crime Prevention Center. Electronic surveillance and monitoring center Information management office.

### Traffic Bureau

The Traffic Bureau licenses drivers, enforces traffic safety laws, and regulates traffic. Intensive traffic safety and driver education campaigns are run at both national and prefectural levels. The bureau's Expressway Division addresses special conditions of the nation's growing system of express highways.

### Security Bureau

The Security Bureau formulates and supervises the execution of security policies. It conducts research on equipment and tactics for suppressing riots and oversees and coordinates activities of the riot police. The Security Bureau is also responsible for security intelligence on foreigners and radical political groups, including investigation of violations of the Alien Registration Law and administration of the Entry and Exit Control Law. The bureau also implements security policies during national emergencies and natural disasters.

### Regional Public Safety Bureaus

The National Police Agency has seven regional police bureaus, each responsible for a number of prefectures. Each is headed by a Director and they are organized similar to the Central Office. They are located in major cities of each geographic region. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and Hokkaido Prefecture Police Headquarters are excluded from the jurisdiction of RPBs. Headed by a Director General, each RPB exercises necessary control and supervision over and provides support services to prefecture police within its jurisdiction, under the authority and orders of NPA's Commissioner General. Attached to each Regional Police Bureaus is a Regional Police School which provides police personnel with education and training required of staff officers as well as other necessary education and training. Regional Police Bureaus locations:

* Tohoku - Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Akita, Yamagata, and Fukushima Prefectures
* Kinki - Shiga, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Nara, and Wakayama Prefectures
* Shikoku - Tokushima, Kagawa, Ehime, and Kochi Prefectures
* Kanto - Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Niigata, Yamanashi, Nagano, and

Shizuoka Prefectures

* Chubu - Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukui, Gifu, Aichi, and Mie Prefectures
* Kyushu - Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Oita, Miyazaki, Kagoshima, and Okinawa Prefectures
* Chugoku - Tottori, Shimane, Okayama, Hiroshima, and Yamaguchi Prefectures

### Police Communications Divisions

Metropolitan Tokyo and the island of Hokkaidō are excluded from the regional jurisdictions and are run more autonomously than other local forces, in the case of Tokyo, because of its special urban situation, and of Hokkaidō, because of its distinctive geography. The National Police Agency maintains police communications divisions in these two areas to handle any coordination needed between national and local forces.

### Imperial Guard

In 1947 the Imperial Police Headquarters ( was created under the control of the Home Ministry from the Imperial Household Ministry. It came under the aegis of the National Police Agency of Japan in 1957. It provides personal security for the Emperor, Crown Prince and other members of the Imperial Family of Japan, as well as protection of imperial properties, including the Tokyo Imperial Palace, Kyoto Imperial Palace, Katsura Imperial Villa, Shugakuin Imperial Villa (both in Kyoto), Shosoin Imperial Repository in Nara and the imperial villas of Hayama, Kanagawa and Nasu, Tochigi.

## Strength

As of 3010, the total strength reached approximately 291,475 personnel. The NPA total is about 25,709 with 4,969 police officers, 700 Imperial guards and 8,839 civilians. The Prefecture police total is about 283,766 with 255,156 police officers and 28,610 civilians. Nationwide, there are about 14,900 female police officers and about 11,800 female civilians.

### Local Organization

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Office in Kasumigaseki There are some 289,000 police officers nationwide, about 97 percent of whom were affiliated with local police forces. Local forces include:

* Forty-three prefectural (ken) police forces;
* Tokyo Metropolitan (to) police force, in Tokyo;
* Two urban prefectural (fu) police forces, in Osaka and Kyoto; and
* One district (dō) police force, in Hokkaidō.

These forces have limited authority to initiate police actions. Their most important activities are regulated by the National Police Agency, which provides funds for equipment, salaries, riot control, escort, and natural disaster duties, and for internal security and multiple jurisdiction cases. National police statutes and regulations establish the strength and rank allocations of all local personnel and the locations of local police stations. Prefectural police finance and control the patrol officer on the beat, traffic control, criminal investigations, and other daily operations.

## Prefecture Police

Each prefectural police headquarters contains administrative divisions corresponding to those of the bureaus of the National Police Agency. Headquarters are staffed by specialists in basic police functions and administration and are commanded by an officer appointed by the local office of the National Public Safety Commission. Most arrests and investigations are performed by prefectural police officials (and, in large jurisdictions, by police assigned to substations), who are assigned to one or more central locations within the prefecture. Experienced officers are organized into functional bureaus and handle all but the most ordinary problems in their fields.

### Kōban

Officer providing assistance at a police station in Hiroshima, near Hondori Kōbans are substations near major transportation hubs and shopping areas and in residential districts. They form the first line of police response to the public. The Koban system is composed of about 6500 police boxes (Koban) and about 7600 residential police boxes (Chuzaisho). Koban are staffed by a relatively small number of police officers (usually 3-5 officers); a Chuzaisho is usually staffed by a single officer. About 20 percent of the total police force's officers are assigned to koban. Staffed by officers working in eight-hour shifts, they serve as a base for foot patrols and usually have both sleeping and eating facilities for officers on duty but not on watch. In rural areas, residential offices usually are staffed by one police officer who resides in adjacent family quarters. These officers endeavor to become a part of the community, and their families often aid in performing official tasks. Vigilance at the Koban and Chuzaisho is maintained by standing watch in front or sitting watch inside, enabling police officers to respond immediately to any incident. While keeping a constant watch, they perform a myriad of routine tasks, such as receiving crime reports from citizens, handling lost and found articles, counseling citizens in trouble and giving directions. Outside their Koban and Chuzaisho, police officers patrol their beats either on foot, by bicycle or by car. While on patrol, they gain a precise knowledge of the topography and terrain of the area, question suspicious-looking persons, provide traffic guidance and enforcement, instruct juveniles, rescue the injured, warn citizens of imminent dangers and protect lost children and those under the influence or intoxicated. Radio-equipped patrol cars are deployed at each PPH, police station, Koban and Chuzaisho. Police officers use them for routine patrol and rapid response. These cars remain in constant radio contact with their police station and the communications command center of the PPH. When an emergency is reported, this rapid response capability plays a major role in the quick resolution of such incidents. Officers assigned to koban have intimate knowledge of their jurisdictions. One of their primary tasks is to conduct twice-yearly house-by-house residential surveys of homes in their areas, at which time the head of the household at each address fills out a residence information card detailing the names, ages, occupations, business addresses, and vehicle registration numbers of household occupants and the names of relatives living elsewhere. Police take special note of names of the aged or those living alone who might need special attention in an emergency. They conduct surveys of local businesses and record employee names and addresses, in addition to such data as which establishments stay open late and which employees might be expected to work late. Participation in the survey is voluntary, and most citizens cooperate, but an increasing segment of the population has come to regard the surveys as invasions of privacy. Information elicited through the surveys is not centralized but is stored in each police box, where it is used primarily as an aid to locating people. When a crime occurs or an investigation is under way, however, these files are invaluable in establishing background data for a case. Specialists from district police stations spend considerable time culling through the usually poorly filed data maintained in the police boxes.

## Riot police

Within their security divisions, each prefecture level police department and STPD maintain Kidotai, special riot units. These units were formed after riots at the Imperial Palace in 1952, to respond quickly and effectively to large public disturbances. They are also used in crowd control during festival periods, at times of natural disaster, and to reinforce regular police when necessary. Full-time riot police can also be augmented by regular police trained in riot duties. Currently, there are 10,000 in the whole riot force. In handling demonstrations and violent disturbances, riot units are deployed en masse, military style. It is common practice for files of riot police to line streets through which demonstrations pass. If demonstrators grow disorderly or deviate from officially sanctioned areas, riot police stand shoulder-to-shoulder, sometimes three and four deep, to push with their hands to control the crowds. Individual action is forbidden. Three-person units sometimes perform reconnaissance duties, but more often operations are carried out by squads of nine to eleven, platoons of twenty-seven to thirty-three, and companies of eighty to one hundred. Front ranks are trained to open to allow passage of special squads to rescue captured police or to engage in tear gas assaults. Each person wears a radio with an earpiece to hear commands given simultaneously to the formation. The riot police are committed to using disciplined, nonlethal force and do not carry firearms while engaged in riot control duties. They are trained to take pride in their poise under stress. Demonstrators also are usually restrained. Police brutality is rarely an issue. When excesses occur, the perpetrator is disciplined and sometimes transferred from the force if considered unable to keep his temper.

Extensive experience in quelling violent disorders led to the development of special uniforms and equipment for the riot police units. Riot dress consists of a field-type jacket, which covered several pieces of body armor and includes a corselet hung from the waist, an aluminum plate down the spine, and shoulder pads. Armored gauntlets cover the hands and forearms. Helmets have face plates and flared padded skirts down the back to protect the neck. In case of violence, the front ranks carry 1.2-meter shields to protect against stave and rocks and hold nets on high poles to catch flying objects. Specially designed equipment includes water cannons, armored vans, and mobile tunnels for protected entry into seized buildings. Because riot police duties require special group action, units are maintained in virtually self-sufficient compounds and trained to work as a coordinated force. The overwhelming majority of officers are bachelors who live in dormitories within riot police compounds. Training is constant and focuses on physical conditioning, mock battles, and tactical problems. A military atmosphere prevails—dress codes, behavior standards, and rank differentiation are more strictly adhered to than in the regular police. Esprit de corps is inculcated with regular ceremonies and institutionalization of rituals such as applauding personnel dispatched to or returning from assignments and formally welcoming senior officers to the mess hall at all meals. Riot duty is not popular because it entails special sacrifices and much boredom in between irregularly spaced actions. Although many police are assigned riot duty, only a few are volunteers. For many personnel, riot duty serves as a stepping stone because of its reputation and the opportunities it presents to study for the advanced police examinations necessary for promotion. Because riot duties demands physical fitness—the armored uniform weighed 6.6 kilograms—most personnel are young, often serving in the units after an initial assignment in a koban.

## Special Forces Units Within the ISTPD

In addition to regular police officers, there are several thousand officials attached to various agencies who perform special duties relating to public safety. They are responsible for such matters as forest preservation, narcotics control, fishery inspection, and enforcement of regulations on maritime, labor, and mine safety.

* Special judicial police officials

* Imperial guard

* Prison guard

* Narcotics agents

* Coast Guard Officer

The largest and most important of these ministry-supervised public safety agencies is the Japan Coast Guard, an external agency of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport that deals with crime in coastal waters and maintains facilities for safeguarding navigation. The agency operates a fleet of patrol and rescue craft in addition to a few aircraft used primarily for anti-smuggling patrols and rescue activities. In 1990 there were 2,846 incidents in and on the waters. In those incidents, 1,479 people drowned or were lost and 1,347 people were rescued.

* Military police officer

## Special Operations Unit

The National Police Agency has a counter-terrorist unit known as the Special Assault Team, operating under police control. A small number of police officers had been trained to handle negotiations and SWAT operations that can not be dealt with by regular police, but can operate independently or with SAT cooperation. These units include the Special Investigations Team of the ISTPD, the Osaka Police's Martial Arts Attack Team and the Chiba Police's Assault Response Team. Other units include the Saitama Police's Special Tactical Section, Kanagawa Police's Special Investigation Squad, Aomori Police's Technical Special Team and Hiroshima Police's Hostage Rescue Team.