$Unique_ID{bob00348} $Pretitle{} $Title{Japan Chapter 7D. The National Police System} $Subtitle{} $Author{Melinda W. Cooke} $Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army} $Subject{police national public safety local riot forces officers agency prefectural} $Date{1981} $Log{} Title: Japan Book: Japan, A Country Study Author: Melinda W. Cooke Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army Date: 1981 Chapter 7D. The National Police System In 1871 Japan's newly established government organized the nation's first civil police force, modeling it along continental European lines. The police force was used for maintaining order during the government's founding period and putting down internal disturbances and counterrevolutionary uprisings. After the 1880s the police developed into a force through which the government extended its control nationwide. Police officers served "primarily as roving guardians of public morality, working with local leaders as a uniformed expression of official approval for the local order." They acted as nonspecialist civil administrators, disseminating official measures, thereby facilitating unification and modernization. In rural areas especially they were held in high esteem and accorded the same mixture of fear and respect directed toward the village headman and the local schoolmaster. Their increasing involvement in political affairs became one of the foundations upon which the twentieth century authoritarian state was erected. 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 issued permits and licenses. After 1937 police directed business activities for the war effort, mobilized labor, and controlled transportation. Special Higher Police were created to regulate motion pictures, political meetings, and election campaigns. Military police operating under the army and navy aided the police in limiting proscribed political activity. After the surrender in 1945, occupation authorities retained the prewar police structure until a new system could be implemented and had the Diet pass a new 1947 Police Law. Contrary to proposals submitted by the Japanese, which contended that a strong, centralized force was still needed to deal with postwar unrest, the police system was decentralized by establishing approximately 1,600 independent municipal forces and a national rural police organized by prefectures. Civilian control was to be assured by placing the police under the jurisdiction of public safety commissions controlled by a National Public Safety Commission in the Office of the Prime Minister. The Home Ministry was abolished, and the police were stripped of their responsibility for fire protection, public health, and other administrative duties. The decentralized system was quickly found to be unwieldy, inefficient, and expensive. It did not provide for exchanges of information among forces nor for their coordinated employment in cases involving more than one jurisdiction. Small municipalities could not support police departments, and accusations of undue influence on local police by community bosses and gangsters were frequent. When the bulk of occupation forces were transferred to Korea, the 75,000 man National Police Reserve was formed to back up the ordinary police during civil disturbances, and pressure for a centralized system mounted. In 1951 the 1947 Police Law was amended to allow smaller communities to merge with the National Rural Police. Most opted to do so, and by 1954 only about 400 cities, towns, and villages still had municipal police forces. Under the 1954 Police Law (as amended) a final restructuring created an even more centralized system in which local forces were organized by prefectures under a National Police Agency. Organization The revised Police Law of 1954, still in effect in 1981, was designed to preserve the strong points of the postwar system, particularly those measures insuring civilian control and political neutralism, while rectifying proven organizational defects. The Public Safety Commission system was retained. State responsibility for maintaining public order was clarified to include coordination of national and local efforts, centralization of police communications, information, and recordkeeping facilities, and administration of national standards regarding training, uniforms, pay, rank, and promotion. Rural and municipal forces were abolished and integrated into prefectural forces which were allotted responsibility for basic police matters. Officials and inspectors in various ministries and agencies continued to exercise special police functions assigned to them in the 1947 Police Law. National In 1981 the National Public Safety Commission had the specific purpose of guaranteeing the neutrality of the police by insulating it from political pressure and ensuring the maintenance of democratic methods of administration within the police. The commission's primary function was the supervision of the National Police Agency (see fig. 18), and it had the authority to appoint or dismiss senior police officers. The commission consisted of a chairman-who held 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 operated independently of the cabinet, but liaison and coordination with the cabinet were facilitated by the chairman's being a member of that body. As the central coordinating body for the entire police system, the National Police Agency determined overall standards and policies, although detailed direction of operations was left to the lower echelons. In times of national emergency or large-scale disaster it was authorized to take command of prefectural police forces. The agency's authorized strength in 1978 was about 8,067, of which 2,385 were police officers and 5,682 were civilian officials. The agency was headed by a commissioner general who was appointed by the National Public Safety Commission with the approval of the prime minister. In 1981 the agency's central office included a Secretariat with sections for finance, administrative measures and legislation, and procurement and distribution of police equipment. The Police Administration Bureau was concerned with police personnel, education, welfare, training, and unit inspections. The Criminal Investigation Bureau was in charge of research statistics and the investigation of nationally important and international cases. The bureau's Safety Department was responsible for crime prevention, juvenile delinquency, and pollution control. In addition the division surveyed, formulated, and recommended legislation pertaining to firearms, explosives, food, drugs, and narcotics. The Communications Bureau supervised police communications systems. The Traffic Bureau was responsible for licensing drivers, enforcing traffic safety laws, and controlling and regulating traffic. Intensive traffic safety and driver education campaigns were run at both the national and prefectural level. In 1976 a Superhighway Supervising Division was established to deal with the special conditions on the nation's growing system of express highways. The Security Bureau formulated security control policies for the nation and supervised their execution. It conducted research regarding equipment and tactics to be utilized in suppressing riots and oversaw and coordinated activities of the riot police. The Security Bureau also was responsible for security intelligence on foreigners in Japan, radical political groups, violations of the Aliens Registration Law, and administration of the Entry and Exit Control Law. It was also concerned with the implementation of security policies during national emergencies, including such disasters as fires, floods, and earthquakes. In 1981 the National Police Agency maintained seven regional police bureaus, each responsible for an area consisting of several prefectures. Metropolitan Tokyo and the island of Hokkaido were excluded from the jurisdictions of the regional bureaus and were run more autonomously than other local forces, the former because of its urban nature and the latter because of its special geography. The National Police Agency maintained police communications divisions in those two areas to handle any necessary coordination between national and local forces. Local Under the Police Law of 1954 local police affairs were subject to the control of each prefecture or the Metropolitan District of Tokyo. Local police personnel in 1978 numbered about 203,000. In 1981 local forces included forty-five Prefectural Police forces, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, and the Hokkaido Prefectural Police. They had limited initiative: their most important activities were regulated by the National Police Agency, which provided funds for equipment, the salaries of national employees, expenses incurred in riot, escort, and natural disaster duties, and costs involved in internal security cases or cases involving several jurisdictions. National police statutes and regulations established the strength and rank allocations of all local personnel, as well as the location of local police stations. Prefectural police financed and controlled the patrolman on the beat, traffic control, criminal investigation, and other daily police operations. Prefectural public safety commissions supervised police agencies within their respective jurisdictions. In 1981 Metropolitan Tokyo, Hokkaido, and six prefectures containing major urban areas each had five-member bodies while the others had three-member commissions. These groups were appointed by the prefectural governor with the consent of local assemblies. In addition Hokkaido had a second Public Safety Commission, which was appointed by the prefectural Public Safety Commission and oversaw four separate area police headquarters. Each prefectural police headquarters contained administrative divisions similar to those of the bureaus of the National Police Agency. Headquarters were staffed by specialists in basic police functions and administration and were commanded by an officer appointed by the local Public Safety Commission. Most arrests and investigations were performed by district police stations (and in large jurisdictions, substations), which were established in one or more central locations within the prefecture. Experienced officers organized into functional bureaus staffed these units and handled all but the most ordinary problems in their fields. Below these stations were police boxes and residential police boxes, which formed the first line of police response to the public. Police boxes were found mainly in urban areas and were manned by several officers. They served as a base from which foot patrols were made and usually had both sleeping and eating facilities for officers on duty. Though declining in number there were still almost twice as many residential as urban police boxes in 1981. These were found mostly in rural areas and usually were staffed by one policeman who resided with his family in adjacent quarters. These officers endeavored to become a part of the community, and their families often aided in performing official tasks. Patrolmen in police boxes had intimate knowledge of their jurisdictions. One of their primary tasks was 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 address, and vehicle license numbers of occupants living there and the names of relatives living elsewhere. Police took separate note of such things as names of the aged or those living alone who might need special attention in the event of an emergency. They conducted surveys of local businesses and recorded employee names and addresses in addition to such data as which establishments stayed open late and which employees might be expected to work late. Participation in the survey was voluntary, and most citizens cooperated. Students and leftists objected most, calling the survey an invasion of privacy or likening it to the compulsory survey conducted by the police in prewar times. Information elicited through the surveys was not centralized but was stored in each police box where it was used primarily as an aid in locating people in each area. When a crime occurred or an investigation was under way, however, these files were invaluable in establishing background data for a case. Specialists from district police stations spent considerable time culling through the usually poorly filed data maintained in the police boxes. Riot Police Within their security divisions each prefectural police department and the Metropolitan Police maintained a branch manned with special riot units. Staffed by approximately 15,000 men in the mid-1970s, these units were formed after riots at the Imperial Palace in 1952 to respond quickly and effectively to incidents involving mass public disturbances. They were also used in crowd control during festival periods, at times of natural disaster, and to reinforce regular police when necessary. Full-time riot police could also be augmented by regular police trained in riot duties. In handling the demonstrations and violent disturbances that occupied approximately 60 percent of their work, riot units were deployed en masse, military style. It was common practice for files of riot police to line streets through which demonstrations passed. If demonstrators grew disorderly or deviated from officially countenanced areas, riot police stood shoulder-to-shoulder, sometimes three and four deep to push with their hands to control crowds. Individual action was forbidden-three-man units sometimes performed reconnaissance duties, but more often operations were carried out in units of nine to eleven man squads, twenty-seven to thirty-three man platoons, and eighty to one hundred man companies. Front ranks were trained to open to allow passage of special squads to rescue captured police or to engage in tear gas assaults. Each man wore a radio with an earpiece so that he could hear commands given simultaneously to his formation. The riot police were committed to using disciplined, nonlethal force and carried no firearms. They were trained to take pride in their poise under great stress and to listen to taunting crowds for hours without loss of temper. Their measured but effective behavior commanded the respect of the nation's citizens and helped to rob violent protest of its legitimacy in public eyes. Police brutality was rarely an issue. When excesses occurred, the perpetrator was 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. In 1981 riot dress consisted of a field-type jacket, which covered several pieces of body armor and which included a corselet hung from the waist, an aluminum plate down the backbone, and shoulder pads. Armored gauntlets covered the hands and forearms. Helmets had faceplates and flared padded skirts down the back to protect the neck. In case of violence the front ranks carried four-foot shields to provide protection against staves and rocks and held nets on high poles to catch flying objects. Specially designed equipment included water cannons, armored vans, and mobile tunnels to facilitate protected entry into seized buildings. Because riot police duties required group action, units were maintained in virtually self-sufficient compounds and trained to work as a coordinated force. The overwhelming majority of officers were bachelors who lived in dormitories within riot police compounds. Training was constant and focused on physical conditioning, mock battles, and tactical problems. A military atmosphere prevailed-dress codes, behavior standards, and rank differentiations were more strictly adhered to than in the regular police. Esprit de corps was 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 was not popular since it entailed special sacrifices and much boredom in between irregularly spaced assignments. Some volunteered, but many were selected. For many it served as a stepping stone, both for its reputation and for the opportunities it presented for study for advanced police examinations necessary for promotion. Because riot duties demanded physical fitness-the armored uniform weighed 14.5 pounds-most personnel were young, perhaps serving in the units after an initial assignment in a police box. Special Police In addition to regular police officers, there were several thousand officials attached to various agencies who performed special duties related to public safety. They had responsibility for such matters as railway security, forest preservation, narcotics control, fishery inspection, and enforcement of regulations on maritime, labor, and mine safety. The largest and most important of these ministry-supervised public safety agencies in 1981 was the Maritime Safety Agency, an external bureau of the Ministry of Transportation established to deal with crime in coastal waters and to maintain facilities for safeguarding navigation. The agency employed almost 11,500 personnel in 1978 and was headed by its director general at agency headquarters in Tokyo. It operated a fleet of patrol and rescue craft in addition to a few aircraft used primarily for antismuggling patrols and rescue activities. Other agencies having limited public safety functions included the Labor Standards Inspection Office of the Ministry of Labor, railway police of the Japanese National Railways, immigration agents of the Ministry of Justice, postal inspectors of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, and revenue inspectors in the Ministry of Finance. A small intelligence agency, the Public Security Investigation Office of the Ministry of Justice, handled national security related matters both in and outside the country. Staffed by approximately 2,000 personnel, its activities were not generally publicly known. Police-Community Relations Despite legal limits on police jurisdiction, many citizens retained their views of the police as figures of authority to whom they could turn for aid. The public often sought police assistance on matters such as settling family quarrels, counseling juveniles, and mediating minor disputes. Citizens regularly consulted police for directions to hotels and residences-an invaluable service in cities where streets were often unnamed and buildings numbered, not consecutively, but rather by the order in which they were built. Police were encouraged by their superiors to look upon these tasks as answering the public's demands for service and as helpful in inspiring community confidence in the police. Public attitudes toward the police were, indeed, generally favorable. Some political groups, leftists and communists in particular, charged that the police were eager to resume the broad powers they held in the past, however, and viewed the police with suspicion. Conditions of Service Police law prescribed ten ranks in the force. Entrance was by exam, and leftist activism by a recruit or any member of his family was grounds for disqualification. Education was highly stressed. Police schools ran one-year courses for high school graduates and six-month programs for college graduates and women. Promotion was by examination and required further course work. In-service training provided mandatory continuous education in more than one hundred fields. About fifteen officers per year passed advanced civil service exams and were admitted as senior officers. Officers were groomed for staff positions, and though some policemen did rise through the ranks to become senior administrators, most such positions were held by the specially recruited executive elite. The police forces were subject to external oversight. Although public safety commissions generally deferred to police decisions and rarely exercised their powers to check police actions or operations, police were liable for civil and criminal prosecution, and the media actively publicized police misdeeds. The Human Rights Bureau of the Ministry of Justice solicited and investigated complaints against public officials, including police, and prefectural legislatures could summon police chiefs for questioning. Social sanctions and peer pressure also constrained police behavior. As in other occupations in Japan, a policeman developed an allegiance to his work group and a reluctance to offend its principles.