Prefectural Public Safety Commission

A commission the Police Act (警察法) places in each prefecture under the jurisdiction of its governor (都道府県知事) (Police Act, Article 38, paragraph (1)). It administers that prefecture's police (都道府県警察) (Article 38, paragraph (3)). It has five members in Tokyo (都), Hokkaido (道), Osaka and Kyoto (府) and in a prefecture that contains a city designated under the Local Autonomy Act (指定市), and three in any other prefecture (Article 38, paragraph (2)). The governor appoints the members, with the consent of the prefectural assembly, from people eligible to stand for that assembly who have not been career public officials doing police or prosecution work in the five years before their appointment; in Hokkaido, Osaka, Kyoto and a prefecture that contains a designated city (指定市), two of the members are people the mayor of that city recommends with the consent of the city assembly (Article 39, paragraph (1)). Under the Secondhand Goods Business Act, a person who intends to run a business buying, selling or exchanging secondhand goods — other than one that only sells them, or only buys back what it sold from the person it sold to — or to run a secondhand goods market must first obtain its permit; that Act calls it the Public Safety Commission (公安委員会) (Secondhand Goods Business Act, Article 2, paragraph (2), items (i) and (ii), and Article 3, paragraph (1)).