Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Public Security Bureau


The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Public Security Bureau is a bureau of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department in charge of public security with jurisdiction over the Tokyo metropolis. 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 is seen as an exception since it had been working with the Japanese National Police Agency for the longest time since they share the same location.
The PSB is not the Japanese equivalent of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, despite some claims that it is. It does not concern with ordinary criminal activities. The main focus of the PSB are activities which threaten national security and therefore, the purpose is much similar to Special Branches of British and Commonwealth police forces.

History

The establishment of the PSB started in 1946 with a Civil Intelligence Section skeleton staff provided by GHQ under the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers under G-2. The CIS were instrumental to recreate the organization from scratch after pre-occupation law enforcement agencies were disbanded.
In 2014, a report was made thanks to a leak that PSB officers were conducting covert surveillance activities on Muslims residents living in the Greater Tokyo Area.

PSB cases

After a discovery of sophisticated radios by police during a raid on a JRCL Revolutionary Marxist Faction safehouse on April 10, 1998, PSB officials had reorganized their communications network to better safeguard it against unwanted intrusions.

Organization

In the Bureau, there are divisions and units as below:
; General Administration Division
; First Public Security Division
; Second Public Security Division
; Third Public Security Division
; Fourth Public Security Division
; First Foreign Affairs Division
; Second Foreign Affairs Division
; Third Foreign Affairs Division
; Public Security Mobile Investigation Unit

Training

Prospective PSB officers are trained at the National Police Academy in intelligence gathering techniques.

Known heads of PSB