Essay On Japanese Police System

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A review of the police systems of Japan reveals the evolution of a police system which has undergone five distinctive phases culminating with the current centralized national police service. History implies that the evolution of the Japanese Police forces mirrors the events occurring in Europe and as such can be identified by specific periods.
The first period, which is identified from 700 to 1603, is marked by the implementation of a dual police system consisting of both public and private police forces. As the police and judicial responsibilities were retained by the ministers of War, Justice, and Popular Affairs while the army served as the professional police force. Terrill states the advent of feudalism decentralized the order of enforcement as the “shogunate increasingly turned to the samurai to provide law enforcement” (2013). The second phase occurring between 1603 and 1868 is identified as the Tokugawa period and illustrates the efforts to centralize governmental authority and political stability. Here, the development of a centralized law enforcement system is reflective of that of …show more content…

With the removal of self-imposed barriers, Japan borrowed organizational and administrative techniques from the west coinciding with that of Europe. Upon recommendation by Kawaji Toshiyoshi, a noted police reformist, the creation of the Home Ministry to manage police systems throughout the country was adopted from the systems of France and Germany (Terrill, 2013). Here, the police retained “quasi-judicial” functions regarding those of minor criminal nature; however, the larger responsibilities were addressed by the new Minister of Justice. As a result, the Meiji period is noted for the introducing introduction of a highly centralized police force; militaristic in their approach of law implementing “heavy-handed” tactics in the governing of its citizens (Terrill,

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