Foundations

The Japanese word for ‘police’ — keisatsu — was coined at the beginning of the Meiji period (1868–1912). The need for ‘the new nomenclature’ ¹ and the novel institution that it described — or anticipated — reveals as much about the situation before the restoration (when political power was transferred formally from the Tokugawa shogunate back to the emperor) as it does about the priorities of the new regime. According to J. B. Leavell, ‘Tokugawa Japan was an unpoliced society’, ² underpinned by the principle of ‘self-regulation’. Emphasizing ‘organised and legitimate coercion (police)’ rather than ‘normative and voluntary processes (traditional values)’, Leavell states that ‘the emperor’s policeman, as opposed to the neighbourhood’s watchman, served as a demonstration of the imperial government’s determination to rule … ‘. ³ Taking its cue from Leavell, this chapter will focus on the development of Japan’s police system during the period 1874 to 1945, drawing attention to both Western models and indigenous traits. It begins with the establishment of a Continental European-style police system, and concludes with the crucial role of neighbourhood associations in wartime Japan, suggesting that a modern police force dovetailed neatly with traditional values, namely ‘the principle of collective responsibility’. ⁴