Public Prosecutors Office of Japan

Japan's Public Prosecutors Office unifies the country's system of criminal prosecution under a single organization: prosecutors investigate crimes, direct the police, and decide whether to bring charges. It is arranged in four tiers, from the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office in Tokyo down through eight High Public Prosecutors Offices in major cities, fifty District Public Prosecutors Offices, and 438 Local Public Prosecutors Offices, employing about 11,863 staff as of 2020-21. Lower offices handle routine cases while specialized units in the larger offices, most notably the Special Investigation Department of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, pursue complex and high-profile prosecutions. The office was established on 3 May 1947 under Japan's postwar constitution as an organ of the Ministry of Justice rather than of the courts, a deliberate separation reflecting the constitutional principle of separated powers and a break from the prewar system, in which prosecution had been attached directly to the courts.