警察庁 v.s. 警視庁 — Distinguishing the National Police Agency from the Tokyo Metropolitan Department

Readers living or traveling in Japan’s capital may note that Tokyo police officers and patrol cars bear the characters 警視庁, or keishichou. At first glance it appears to be the characters for the National Police Agency (NPA), except the middle of the three characters is different — the NPA is 警察庁, or keisatsuchou. Keishichou is the unique name attributed to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. For a Japanese speaker even mildly familiar with the structure of government in Japan, this looks peculiar — why is a prefectural police department named in such a way that it appears to be a national agency?

keishichou1

The history begins with the Meiji Restoration, when the keishichou was established in 1874 to protect and police the seat of government. As a police department, it had a unique role from the time of its establishment — some of its officers were organized into a division that fought for the Imperial government in the Satsuma Rebellion. The keishichou at this time served as a prefectural police department, but it was an agency of the government, subordinate to the cabinet, and Tokyo prefecture only had the authority to decide its budget. Later, the department also housed the Tokko special police force, the civilian counterpart to the military’s Kempeitai, taking part in both criminal investigation and counter-espionage functions.

The headquarters of the keishichou was situated just outside Sakuradamon, the southern gate of Edo Castle/Imperial Palace, possibly due to its importance in guarding the emperor, but also because that site was the location of an infamous assassination a decade earlier, and the location of the agency may have been a show of authority. The jolly Victorian structure was unfortunately destroyed in the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, as witnessed below. (Today, the Keishichou is right next to Sakuradamon gate, and the NPA is in the building next to it.)

keishichou3

During the Occupation, the Keishichou was reformulated under the old police law, and added the imperial police under its jurisdiction, which had previously been a wholly independent branch of authority. During the same time, GHQ set up a similar keishichou in Osaka, which only lasted for the years of the Occupation.

After the Occupation, Tokyo’s Keishichou became an ordinary prefectural police department, but kept its name and retained some of its unique functions. From a jurisdictional standpoint, most prefectures are divided into wards with different departments of the prefectural police having jurisdiction over certain regions of each prefecture. Only Tokyo and Hokkaido have police departments where one department and all of its officers have responsibility for the entire prefecture, without divisions into areas. Also, the keishichou maintains some additional responsiblities, being responsible also for policing the Imperial Family, the Diet, the administrative agencies, the cabinet, the embassies of foreign nations in Japan, and other important people (officers of the keishichou were dispatched to Hokkaido for the G8 summit). The Keishichou is also the only prefectural police department that handles any fire truck activities (typically a separate task handled by the shoubouchou, or Fire Prevention Agency) because the imperial police force have this task especially assigned to them as part of their duties.

Interestingly enough, metropolitan police departments that provide similar functions in other countries, such as Scotland Yard in London and the Paris Prefecture Police are often translated as keishichou as well.

4 thoughts on “警察庁 v.s. 警視庁 — Distinguishing the National Police Agency from the Tokyo Metropolitan Department”

  1. Excellent answer for a question I half-had when noticing police cars pass by in Tokyo, but had never remembered to look up.

    BTW, looks like the French organization is simply the “Prefecture of Police”, with a prefecture being not a regional government but a government body headed by a “Prefect,” who is appointed by the president. Also interesting to note, which I did not know, that police in France are responsible for “monitoring alien residents.” Anyone here lived in France and know how it works?

  2. Awesome before and after picture.

    Wait, so what is it that the keisatsucho does again?

    (Checks NPA site)

    So the National Public Safety Commission is an independent body under the prime minister’s jurisdiction. The NPSC, chaired by a government-appointed state minister (currently Tsutomu Sato, LDP diet member who also has the “Okinawa and Northern Territories” and “Disaster Prevention” portfolios), then “administratively supervises” the NPA as a kind of board of directors and sets basic national policy priorities, deciding police training and ensuring uniformity among the forces, and a broad mission to “coordinate” necessary matters. Steps are taken to ensure neutrality of membership such as a five year term, requiring both Diet houses to approve each member, and barring more than two members from being part of the same political party.

    The NPA then plays the working-level role of implementing and filling in the details of the NPSC-decided policies. They are the ones who submit the national police budget proposals to the Ministry of Finance, and hence stories of evil foreign crime come from here. The NPA provides “supervision and control within the agency’s defined duties” of prefectural police authorities along similar lines.

    The “administrative supervision” role over the prefectural police, however, is played by the prefectural public safety commissions, which are commissioned and by the prefectural governor, under limitations intended to ensure political neutrality. The management is directed by the prefectural commissions independent of the national commission, aside from the overarching national policy-setting (the NPA apparently recommends crackdowns on foreign criminals, etc).

    :deep breath:

    Source: Awesomely bad NPA English website:
    http://www.npa.go.jp/english/kokusai/index.htm

  3. Actually officers of just about every prefectural police organization in Japan get sent to help out when a G8 summit rolls around. In 2000 there were all these poor guys from Aomori and Hokkaido wearing full rot gear, toppling over from Okinawan heatstroke.

    When there are major international events in Tokyo the 警視庁 calls on reinforcements from other prefectures, and you get amusing scenes of people stopping a cop to ask for directions somewhere and getting “I have no idea, ma’am, I’m from Yamaguchi” as a reply.

  4. Great posting – nice to read such interesting and concise little tidbits – thanks for taking the time to share – I had also been wondering about this but never spent the time to work out the details.

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