Around 50 police posts in Tokyo that are often unmanned are to be equipped with videophones from the next fiscal year so the public can contact police, officials said Saturday.
The move is in line with the wishes of Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, who has said "koban" police posts need not be manned all the time if low-cost videophones are installed.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Metropolitan Police Department will install the Internet-linked videophones. The units now sell for less than 200,000 and are used for video-conferencing by companies or language lessons for people studying at home.
Police in Ehime Prefecture also introduced low-cost units at three police posts in the city of Matsuyama in October.
In the 1990s, the National Police Agency promoted what it described as high-tech police posts that used videophones equipped with city directory functions.