FUKUOKA--Ten years after prefectural police departments across Japan started to recruit and promote more female police officers, Fukuoka prefectural police are still playing catch-up. 

The prefectural police here had Japan’s lowest ratio of female officers in its workforce last year.

Prefectural police officials said a factor behind the lag stems from the aftereffects of an anti-yakuza offensive, particularly against the Kudo-kai, which is based in Kita-Kyushu in the prefecture.

The campaign against the Kudo-kai, which has been designated an “organized crime group” by the authorities, required the need for more male police officers.

Today, with that effort mostly in the rear-view window, Fukuoka prefectural police are rushing to foster a climate that allows its female police officers to better balance work and family.

This includes creating positions where duties can be shared by multiple workers and endeavoring to develop male workers who take an active role in child care.

“We may be lagging behind from a national perspective, but we have been working steadily to recruit and promote more policewomen over a mid- to long-term time span,” said an official in the Fukuoka police personnel division. “We will have to continue developing facilities and programs that suit the life plans of our workers.”

HOKKAIDO LEADER IN FEMALE POLICE OFFICERS

The National Police Agency said women accounted for a record 10.6 percent of all police officers in prefectural police departments across Japan as of April 2021.

The leader was the Hokkaido prefectural police at 12.2 percent, followed by the Ibaraki prefectural police, runner-up at 11.9 percent, and the Saitama prefectural police, which was third at 11.8 percent.

Fukuoka prefectural police, in the meantime, had about 990 policewomen as of last April, accounting for only 8.8 percent of its police officers.

The figure had been growing from year to year from about 550, or 5.1 percent of all police officers, in 2011, but Fukuoka still had the lowest percentage of women among its police officers of all the 47 prefectural police departments across Japan.

The NPA in 2011 instructed prefectural police departments across Japan to work out plans to recruit, and promote to senior positions, more female police officers.

In response, many prefectural police departments came up with plans, for example, to raise the percentage of women among their police officers to approximately 8 to 10 percent by fiscal 2023.

FUKUOKA SEES GROWING DEMAND FOR FEMALE OFFICERS

Fukuoka prefectural police developed, around the same time, a plan for achieving a 10 percent target eight years later, in fiscal 2031.

At the time, the Kudo-kai was assaulting ordinary citizens on successive occasions in Fukuoka Prefecture, making it one of the top priorities for Japanese police to contain the gangster group.

Authorities including the Fukuoka Prefectural Public Safety Commission in 2012 designated the Kudo-kai an organized crime group posing a “particular risk,” the only one to fall in that category in Japan.

Prefectural police officials said there was a pressing need at the time to acquire enough personnel for protecting and guarding potential targets of assaults. That led to deciding that male police officers should deal directly with Kudo-kai members who were attacking residents. 

But with an increasing stalking and domestic violence caseload, there was a growing demand for female police officers. However, it was not easy at the time to expand the recruitment quota for them, partly because facilities for female workers, such as nap rooms at police boxes, had yet to be developed, the officials explained.

Fukuoka prefectural police in 2018 moved up the target date for achieving the prospective 10 percent ratio of policewomen to fiscal 2023. It reasoned that its offensive against the Kudo-kai had achieved effective results, with senior members of the gangster group arrested.

Last year, a woman was appointed deputy marshal of a police station for the first time in the prefecture.

In addition to recruiting a growing number of female workers, prefectural police in 2017 also started a program for assisting career development for policewomen who are facing marriage, childbirth, nursery care for family members and other similar circumstances.

Under the program, the police department created positions that are officially designated to assist workers in need of a work-life balance. Those who are appointed to fill those posts are largely exempted from having to deal with unexpected occurrences, and their duties can be shared among multiple workers.

Male police workers account for some 70 percent of the spouses of women who work for Fukuoka prefectural police, including those who are not policewomen.

Taking that into account, prefectural police have also been organizing training sessions for its male workers to prompt them to take more active roles in child care and housework.