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A few words more. There is in Tokyo a college called the Police and Prison College, under the control of the Ministry of the Interior. It is not a college in the strict sense. It is a place where police and prison officers are trained for the discharge of their special duties both in theory and practice. Each Governor selects a certain number of the most promising young officers from amongst the police force of his prefecture, and they are the police officers who are sent to and trained in the college. When they finish and go back to their prefecture, they in turn instruct others at the training station of their several prefectures. This college was instituted in the year when the old treaties with the Western Powers were revised, and has proved very successful. The majority of the teachers were foreigners at first, but their places are now mostly taken by natives.
And yet another word. With us there is a system of the so-called ‘applied-for policemen.’ A bank, or any great commercial firm, or municipal corporation, private schools, or even private families of sufficient standing, may apply for the permanent despatch of a number of policemen to their premises, and so establish a kind of police-station therein. These policemen do not differ from their colleagues in any way, except that the expenses pertaining to them are defrayed by the applicants. To make it more clear, there is a fixed sum, which is determined by the Governors, with the concurrence of the respective prefectural assemblies, to be contributed to the authorities for each of the men applied for. These men are not always the same, but the necessary number of them is always stationed on the same premises and keep watch, a plan which has proved both convenient and successful.
II. Prisons
Prepared by the Ministry of Justice
The supreme supervision of prison administration in Japan is vested in the Minister of Justice, who has the central prisons under his immediate control, while the local prisons are under the control of the local prefect under his discretion. The work of prison supervision is looked after by a special prison bureau in the Ministry of Justice on behalf of the Minister. At present this bureau consists of a director, three prison superintendents, fifteen clerks, and nine minor employés. The bureau is divided into three departments: First, the Department of Prison Management; second, the Department of Prison Income and Expenses; and, third, the Department of