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Concept
Prefectural police
Summary
In the law enforcement system in Japan, prefectural police are prefecture-level law enforcement agencies responsible for policing, law enforcement, and public security within their respective prefectures of Japan. Although prefectural police are, in principle, regarded as municipal police, they are mostly under the central oversight and control of the National Police Agency.
As of 2017, the total strength of the prefectural police is approximately 260,400 sworn officers and 28,400 civilian staff, a total of 288,000 employees.
In the Empire of Japan, territorial police forces were organised as departments of police of each prefectural offices. They were placed under complete centralized control, with the Police Affairs Bureau of the Home Ministry at their core.
After the surrender of Japan, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers regarded this centralized police system as undemocratic. During the occupation of Japan, the principle of decentralisation was introduced by the 1947 Police Law (now commonly referred to as "Old Police Law"). Cities and large towns had their own municipal police services, and the National Rural Police was responsible for smaller towns, villages and rural areas. However, most Japanese municipalities were too small to have an effectively large police force, so sometimes they were unable to deal with large-scale violence. In addition, excessive fragmentation of the police organisation reduced the efficiency of police activities.
As a response to these problems, complete restructuring created a more centralized system under the 1954 amended Police Law. All operational units except for the Imperial Guard were reorganized into the prefectural police departments for each prefecture and the National Police Agency was established as the central coordinating agency for these police departments.
Each prefectural police department comprises a police authority and operational units: Prefectural Public Safety Commissions (PPSC) and Prefectural Police Headquarters (PPH).
Official source
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