Lots of experiential exhibits! The Police Museum (Keisatsu Hakubutsukan) in Kyobashi is fun for kids and adults alike!

Have you heard of the Keisatsu Hakubutsukan, which reopened after renovations in April 2017 with the nickname “The Police Museum”? This is the only police museum in Japan where you can learn about the history of the police force and the work that the police do, and following the renovations, the museum now provides a full range of activities where visitors can experience what it is like to be a police officer in real life. Today we are on a field trip to fact-check the Police Museum’s reputation as a place that both adults and children can enjoy!

When we think of police officers’ work, what generally comes to mind are the Community Police Affairs Division, which operates based on koban (police substation) and chuzaisho (residential police substation); the Traffic Division, which is known for patrol cars and white police motorcycles; and the Criminal Investigation Division, which we see on the news and in TV dramas conducting investigations and forensics … what other divisions, I wonder? I pondered this question during the few minutes it took us to walk from Kyobashi Station on the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line to the Police Museum. We walked straight down Chuo-dori Street, which transforms into a pedestrian paradise on Sundays in Ginza, in the direction of Kyobashi and Nihonbashi. The Museum is on the approach to Kyobashi Bridge, which once straddled the Kyobashi River that used to flow along here. The huge cherry blossom on the façade can be easily spotted even from a distance.

Admission to the Police Museum is free of charge. In the Pipo-kun Hall on the first floor, there are exhibits of various police vehicles, such as a red police motorcycle that was used around 1918 and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s first helicopter, Harukaze No. 1, which was acquired in 1959.

Here you cannot miss the Become a Police Officer Experience where children can dress up as police officers and take commemorative photographs. Holding Harukaze’s joystick, my children were over the moon to be able to act as helicopter pilots for a while. (Laughs)

It is recommended that you start the tour from the upper floor. Proceeding to the experiential activity spaces on the lower floor after seeing the upstairs exhibits tracing the history of the police force greatly deepens your understanding.

The topmost floor for the museum’s permanent exhibition (fifth floor) is entitled “History of the Police: Walking Hand-in-Hand with Each Era.” Although the exhibits may be a little difficult for small children to comprehend, the numerous precious materials that can only be seen here exude a sense of the police force’s traditions and history that began with Superintendent (now Superintendent General) Toshiyoshi Kawaji, who is known as the “Father of Japanese Police.”

One display that left an especially deep impression was the section on incidents that occurred during the Showa period (1926–1989). You can see the bullet holes in the large shields that were actually used by the riot police in the infamous Asama Sanso Incident, a sight that is still shocking today. Also, on the same floor at the back there are photographs of police officers who were killed in the line of duty as well as a requiem, a solemn reminder of how the job of being a police officer goes hand in hand with danger.

The museum tour continues on the fourth floor. The walls of the stairwell are lined with illustrations of a wide range of police activities.

The theme of the fourth floor is “Protecting the Capital City: Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s Present and Future.” On this floor, as you walk around viewing booths introducing the various divisions of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, you come to an enormous display case where you can see the uniforms of police officers working in various different scenarios all at once. The cute pink uniforms are those of the color guard of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department band, commonly known as MEC. Members of MEC were part of the group of government representatives who participated in the 46th Nihonbashi-Kyobashi Matsuri: Lively Oedo Parade that was held recently.

In addition, this floor also has a mini theater screening three short films in which currently serving police officers appear. We watched the film: Beyond 110. This was a drama showing what happens from the time the police receive a 110 call until the culprit is arrested, and it included a car chase on the closed Rainbow Bridge that was well worth seeing. Watching the scene in which the culprit is captured, I was mesmerized by the police officers’ astonishing agility that could not be recreated in any TV crime drama.

Comprising the much-awaited experiential spaces, the third floor has the theme “The ability to solve crimes/accidents.”

Altogether, there were seven types of experiential games modeled on criminal investigations. Levels are set so that not only children but adults, too, can enjoy the games, with the top level on par with an actual crime investigation!

For example, Remember the Number is a game in which players remember the number plates of reckless drivers. It is possible to remember a car’s color and the number on the number plate, but the level of difficulty shoots up when the registered area and identifying hiragana characters are included. “What’s this??? This is too hard….” It goes without saying that a detective who has undergone training must be able to pass the advanced level. Becoming a detective is very hard!

We also tried the Search for Fugitives game in which players try to find wanted criminals based on photographs. This uses the so-called Miatari Sosa investigative technique (memorizing the faces of the most wanted criminals in advance and then identifying them while scanning the faces of passersby in the street). Veteran detectives can memorize the faces of some 500 people and are out on the streets every day searching for criminals. In the game we only had to memorize the face of one criminal, and I completely underestimated the difficulty. Search for criminals in groups coming towards me from the opposite side of an intersection crossing, the more I panicked, thinking “There must be a criminal in disguise here somewhere!” the more difficult it was to find them…. I was only able to answer one out of the three questions correctly (OMG).

In addition to all these games, on the third floor there is also the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Kyobashi Police Station where visitors can have a simulated experience of a day at a koban (police substation) through the eyes of a newly recruited police officer on koban duty, as well as a “Police Officer before I Knew It” space where visitors can enjoy visualizing themselves in various police uniforms as they are shown on a monitor wearing each uniform.

Our museum tour ended with the second floor, which is themed: “Protecting both People and the City.” How much do you know about the citizens’ duty to cooperate with investigations, or about crime prevention at home?

Through the experiential activities on the third floor I was able to learn about the tremendous skills of trained investigators. On this floor, I came to a clear understanding that there are crimes and accidents that can be prevented with citizens’ cooperation.

For example, in the game Home Crime Prevention Diagnosis, players find places around the home that would be easy for a burglar to enter from. Places needing crime prevention measures can be selected from such options as “Piled up newspapers,” “Spare key under a flowerpot,” and “Only one lock on the door.” Be sure to experience this diagnostic game at the Police Museum! Traffic safety is also realized through the awareness of every citizen. The “Bicycle Riding Simulator,” which is popular with children, allows them to experience firsthand the disastrous consequences of momentary carelessness. Providing safety information that is close to home is another important police activity.

Japan’s police force is proud of its public safety, which is the best in the world. Introducing police activities that we think we know about but actually don’t, the Police Museum lives up to its reputation and is a spot that you definitely want to visit at least once. When I eventually noticed the time, we had been touring the museum for an hour and a half. Attaching the Pipo-kun key holder I bought as a souvenir to my bag, together with my children I swore to never forget my gratitude to the police and my duty as a citizen to cooperate with them.

The Police Museum (Keisatsu Hakubutsukan)
Address: 3-5-1 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku

Tel: +81 (0)3-3581-4321 (Main number of Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department)

Opening hours / Admission fee

9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. / Free entry

Closed: Mondays (When Monday is a public holiday, Tuesday); Year-end/New Year holiday (December 28 to January 4)

Website: https://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/about_mpd/welcome/welcome/museum_tour.html