Crime & Courts

Police to Set Up Special Fraud Investigation Team

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
The Metropolitan Police Department is seen in October 2023 in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo.

Jiji Press

13:05 JST, December 14, 2023

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The National Police Agency will set up a new investigation team to promote unified efforts by police across the country to crack down on special fraud, it was learned Wednesday.

The new team, called TAIT (telecom scam allianced investigation team) will be established in April next year.

Through the team, the police departments of the country’s 47 prefectures will work together to deal with special fraud cases that cross prefectural borders and to eliminate fraud organizations.

For example, if cash stolen from a fraud victim in one prefecture is withdrawn from an ATM in another prefecture, police from both prefectures will cooperate to investigate the case.

As police in urban areas are expected to be asked for such cooperation frequently, the team will have a total of about 500 full-time investigators in the police departments of Tokyo and the neighboring prefectures of Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa, as well as Aichi, Osaka and Fukuoka prefectures.