The Police Idea in Imperial Japan by Max Ward, Associate Professor of History

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs International and Global Colloquium presents “The Police Idea in Imperial Japan, 1900-1945,” by Max Ward, Associate Professor Japanese History, Middlebury College.

The historical relationship between policing and state power is nowhere more evident than in Japan, in which one of the first institutions of modern state formation was the creation of a national police force in 1874. From that time forward, the police were tasked to manage the social dislocations caused by Japan’s rapid development and thus implicated in many of the important events of Japanese imperial history. Exploring one chapter in this history, my talk focuses on the writings of Matsui Shigeru (1866-1945) who, as director of the Police Training Center, reflected on the nature of police power in relation to the changing conditions of interwar Japan. I argue that formulations of the police idea such as Matsui’s provide not only a lens into the history of imperial Japan but also a vantage point from which to consider current debates over policing in the 21st century.

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