Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) plans to set up a section specializing in investigating lone wolves who carry out terrorist attacks independently without any ties to any organization, according to informed sources.
This will be the first time for such a section to be established in a Japanese police department, the sources said.
The MPD will create the section in April next year when it reorganizes its Public Security Bureau with the aim of strengthening its information-gathering capabilities as part of efforts to prevent terrorism and serious crimes.
Incidents involving lone wolves have emerged in the country in recent years, such as the fatal shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July 2022 and an incident in April 2023 in which an explosive was thrown at Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a campaign tour.
Experts say that it is difficult to detect signs of terrorism by such offenders as they are responsible for everything from plotting the attacks to carrying them out.
At the MPD, the general affairs section of the Public Security Bureau currently collects information on lone offenders. The function will be transferred to the new public security section.
The new section — the bureau's third — will also consolidate information on suspicious persons collected by the Criminal Investigation Bureau, the Community Police Affairs Bureau and others while strengthening vigilance against suspicious social media posts through cyberpatrol activities.
"We want to create an effective organizational system to respond to the threat of lone offenders," a senior MPD official said.
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