“due to the fact that wives often have to cover for their husbands when they are out in the community, they are now financially compensated for their work”The Japanese Police System Today pg 96
The chief reasons for becoming a police officer are: “(1) Being a policeman is a manly job; (2) Police stand on the side of justice and punish criminals;(3) The income is steady.” The Japanese Police System Today
The police still ask the permission of Tokyo University before they enter their grounds Being bad mouthed by drunks and ignoring it seems to be a standard part of the job (in the UK calling a policeman the equivalent of “bakayaro” would invariably get you arrested)
“another difference between the work of Japanese and American police [is] the Japanese police rarely go to court. Information they gather on a criminal case is turned over to a prosecutor, and the court does not require their personal appearance” The Japanese Police System Today pg 60
In Japan it is more common to use “show ups” (identification of a suspect by a witness by a yes/no one to one encounter) and the slighty more reliable “photo arrays”, than the much more reliable line up (Usual Suspects style)
“A private security force is employed in the [Tsukiji wholesale fish] market area” Great set up for a variation on the heist movie, provisional title “One of Maguro is Missing”
Police officers visiting house to house has no legal basis and you are perfectly within your rights to not answer any questions
Rather than a night shift, a koban policeman will work an occasional 24 hour shift followed by a day off
“[During the period of] the late sixties when radical student groups were aggressive… One officer recounted that they were required systematically to search the immediate premises of the koban every fifteen minutes for explosives” Not what you would expect of the “consensus society”, though whether it is a disproof of that or proof of Japanese official paranoia I can’t decide The Japanese Police System Today pg 57
“The rear rooms [of the koban police box], or occasionally an upstairs room, provide a tatami mat area for sleeping and sometimes a tatami mat area for sleeping and sometimes a seperate room for preparing modest meals…A concealed safe is available for locking up weapons while the officer is asleep” The Japanese Police System Today
“[A] regulation requires that the front door[pf the koban police box] remain open at all times”The Japanese Police System Today
”When officers go out for a meal, they do not wear uniforms as it is against police regulations to do so” The Japanese Police System Today pg 42
