The police departments in over 30 of Japan's 47 prefectures missed their hiring targets from fiscal 2021 to fiscal 2023, sources said.

Many prefectural police departments make far more job offers than their planned hires but around 30% of the applicants given informal offers end up turning them down.

"If the number of applicants decreases, police activities to ensure public security will be affected," a prefectural police official said, expressing a sense of crisis.

Based on materials obtained from the National Police Agency (NPA), Jiji Press tallied the planned hires and informal job offers given to applicants, as well as actual hires who passed employment examinations for high school and university graduates conducted by prefectural police departments for fiscal 2021 to fiscal 2023.

According to the tally, the total number of those taking the exam nationwide fell by more than 20% — from around 62,900 in fiscal 2021 to approximately 48,300 in fiscal 2023.

For fiscal 2023, police across the country gave informal job offers to about 11,000 applicants, against 8,200 planned hires, but 30% of applicants declined. As a result, the police were able to hire only about 7,300 people.

The number of prefectural police departments that fell short of their hiring targets was 32 in both fiscal 2021 and 2022, with 31 for fiscal 2023. The shortfall averaged 15% and in some cases exceeded 30%.

In places with a large police force such as Tokyo and Osaka Prefecture, the share of applicants who declined job offers averages around 40% over the same three years. Hokkaido, however, exceeded 50% during fiscal 2023.

According to an official of Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department, many applicants, even if they pass the exams, choose to work for police, fire authorities or local governments in their hometowns.

This trend only intensified after the COVID-19 pandemic, the official said, adding that many applicants take the Tokyo police test as a trial run since it is held earlier than other places in the country.

The refusal rates for job offers at prefectural police departments in the countryside tend to be lower than those in urban areas. But securing new officers is no easier in rural areas.

"We compete with the prefectural and city governments and fire authorities, so our job offers are often rejected," said an official of a prefectural police department in the Chugoku region.

The competition ratio fell in many prefectures because the number of examinees decreased while the number of planned hires saw little change.

The average acceptance rate nationwide during fiscal 2023 was 1 in 4.4 applicants, while as many as 1 out of less than 3 applicants was accepted in over 10 police departments across Tohoku, Chubu and Chugoku.

"The situation is extremely severe," NPA Commissioner-General Yoshinobu Kusunoki told a meeting of senior recruitment officials across the country in May.

"We will provide information to junior and senior high school students we haven't approached very much so far, in order to drastically strengthen our recruitment activities," he added.

"The public's perception of police work as hard and severe has been established, but we must show them that there is also warmth and friendliness," a senior official said.