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Japan The Police System
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 were created
to
regulate the content of motion pictures, political
meetings, and
election campaigns. Military police operating under the
army and
navy 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
(see World War II
, this ch.). After 1937 police directed business
activities for
the war effort, mobilized labor, and controlled
transportation.
After Japan's surrender in 1945, occupation authorities
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
(see
fig. 15).
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 recordkeeping facilities;
and
national standards for training, uniforms, pay, rank, and
promotion. Rural and municipal forces were abolished and
integrated
into prefectural 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.
Data as of January 1994
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