Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Public Security Bureau
Encyclopedia
Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department serves as the police force for the entire Tokyo metropolis. Founded in 1874, it is headed by a superintendent general, who is appointed by the National Public Safety Commission and approved by the prime minister.The Metropolitan Police, with a staff of more...
in charge of public security
Public security
To meet the increasing challenges in the public security area, responsible public institutions and organisations can tap into their own intelligence to successfully address possible threats in advance...
with jurisdiction over Tokyo metropolis
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
. It has a force of more than 2,000 officers.
In the Japanese police organization, only the Metropolitan Police Department becomes "the bureau" where the security police branch becomes independent. In other prefectural police forces, the Public Security Section and Foreign Affairs Division are installed in a Security Department. Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
is seen as an exception since it had been working with the Japanese National Police Agency
National Police Agency (Japan)
The is an agency administered by the National Public Safety Commission of the Cabinet Office in the cabinet of Japan, and is the central coordinating agency of the Japanese police system....
for the longest time since they share the same location.
The PSB is not a Japanese version of Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
, despite some claims that it is. It does not concern with ordinary criminal activities. It main focus is activities which threaten national security and therefore, the purpose is much similar to MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
. However, unlike MI5, it is operated entirely by police officers.
PSB cases
- The PSB had been mobilized to investigate all Aum ShinrikyoAum ShinrikyoAum Shinrikyo was a Japanese new religious movement. The group was founded by Shoko Asahara in 1984. The group gained international notoriety in 1995, when it carried out the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway....
facilities after the deadly sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subwaySarin gas attack on the Tokyo subwayThe Sarin attack on the Tokyo subway, usually referred to in the Japanese media as the , was an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated by members of Aum Shinrikyo on March 20, 1995....
. Following the discovery of an Aum cultist who had been employed by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense ForcesJapan Maritime Self-Defense ForceThe , or JMSDF, is the naval branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, tasked with the naval defense of Japan. It was formed following the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy after World War II....
after sensitive military information had been leaked out, the PSB had investigated the matter. The PSB had been the leading agency to investigate reports that Aum ShinrikyoAum ShinrikyoAum Shinrikyo was a Japanese new religious movement. The group was founded by Shoko Asahara in 1984. The group gained international notoriety in 1995, when it carried out the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway....
had acquired names of 3,000 HondaHondais a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles.Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than...
executives and sensitive data from government ministries and other important facilities via Aum-created software.
- An ex-Japanese Air Self-Defense ForcesJapan Air Self-Defense ForceThe , or JASDF, is the aviation branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces responsible for the defense of Japanese airspace and other aerospace operations. The JASDF carries out combat air patrols around Japan, while also maintaining an extensive network of ground and air early warning radar systems...
warrant officer had been investigated by the PSB for divulging military secrets under the Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement to a Russian GRUGRUGRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
operative, who was identified as Aleksei Shchelkonogov.
- Three activists of the Tachikawa Jieitai Kanshi Tentomura had been said to be prisoners of consciencePrisoner of consciencePrisoner of conscience is a term defined in Peter Benenson's 1961 article "The Forgotten Prisoners" often used by the human rights group Amnesty International. It can refer to anyone imprisoned because of their race, religion, or political views...
by Amnesty InternationalAmnesty InternationalAmnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
when they had arrested by police with the PSB investigating them for conducting anti-war activities after illegally entering an SDF housing complex in Tachikawa.
- PSB agents had been involved in the arrest of former Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office official Toshihiko Shimizu, accused of providing classified data to a Russian embassy official, supposedly posing as a diplomatDiplomatA diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
, under the National Public Service Law.
- The PSB had failed in securing a Russian man wanted for spying in Japanese territory as a suspected agent of the SVRForeign Intelligence Service (Russia)The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service is Russia's primary external intelligence agency. The SVR is the successor of the First Chief Directorate of the KGB since December 1991...
since the 1960s when he left Japan in 1995 and reentered the country several times before being unaccounted for when the spy used a Japanese name to obtain a Japanese passportJapanese passportJapanese passports are issued to Japanese citizens to travel outside Japan.- Types of passports :* Ordinary passport: Issued to normal citizens.** Ordinary passports are issued in two different lengths of validity: five and ten years...
in Vienna.
Scandal
After a discovery of sophisticated radios by police during a raid on a JRCL Revolutionary Marxist FactionJapan Revolutionary Communist League (Revolutionary Marxist Faction)
The Japan Revolutionary Communist League is a Japanese Trotskyist revolutionary group, often referred to as Kakumaru-ha.The group's origins lie in splits from the Japanese Communist Party following the Hungarian Revolution of 1956...
safehouse on April 10, 1998, PSB officials had reorganized their communications network to better safeguard it against unwanted intrusions.
Organization
| Department | Mandate |
|---|---|
| General Administration | Minor groups such as religious cults |
| First Public Security Division | Anti-left wing terrorist investigation |
| Second Public Security Division | Anti-left wing radical investigation |
| Third Public Security Division | Anti-right wing radical investigation |
| Fourth Public Security Division | Data management |
| First Foreign Affairs Division | Anti-Russian/Eastern Europe/Communist Bloc espionage and Counter-intelligence Counter-intelligence Counterintelligence or counter-intelligence refers to efforts made by intelligence organizations to prevent hostile or enemy intelligence organizations from successfully gathering and collecting intelligence against them. National intelligence programs, and, by extension, the overall defenses of... |
| Second Foreign Affairs Division | Anti-Chinese/North Korean espionage |
| Third Foreign Affairs Division | Anti-Middle East espionage and Counter-terrorism |
| Public Security Mobile Investigation Unit | Investigates places that are under PSB's jurisdiction including criminal/espionage/terrorist cases. Also has a NBC Terrorist Investigation Unit. |