The Japanese police system was once regarded as one of the best in the world, but that is no longer true. In a spate of scandals, some officers are said to have created slush funds with public money while others have falsified internal reports to improve their performance records.
In its 2004 white paper, the National Police Agency acknowledged that police budgets have sometimes been misused. The report said, for example, that officers in Hokkaido, Shizuoka and Fukuoka prefectures misappropriated investigation and travel expenses to throw parties for themselves. The report made no mention of any NPA role in the scandals, which stirred debate in the Diet. It suggested that individual prefectural police departments were responsible, and failed to clarify how the secret funds were created and used.
Punitive action taken by prefectural police departments against offending officers have amounted to little more than a slap on the wrist.