Seven prefectures in the Kanto and Kansai regions jointly filed a request Monday with the central government to increase the number of police and immigration officers assigned to major prefectures.
Governors and other officials of Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo submitted their request to Hidehiko Sato, commissioner general of the National Police Agency, at the agency's headquarters in Tokyo.
The prefectures urged the central government to take swift measures to reduce crime, a growing national concern. According to Tokyo Metropolitan Government officials, there were more than 2.85 million criminal cases nationwide in 2002, the worst figure in the postwar period.