Anzen mamoru: The Representation of the Japanese Police in Japanese Factual Television

This paper is about the representation of the Japanese police in three factual television series. In all three series, the audience accompanies police officers during their work and thus gets a close look at the daily work of the Japanese police. However, even if the series try to convey a feeling of authenticity, staging strategies which aim at the entertainment and education of the audience can be clearly identified. I therefore place them in the intermediate area between the genres of reality TV and documentaries. The research method adopted in this study is Werner Faulstich’s qualitative movie analysis, based on his book Grundkurs Filmanalyse (2013), in combination with a descriptive quantitative approach. In the analysis I ask what kinds of messages about the Japanese police are created in the three series under examination. The major findings can be summarised as follows: the comprehensive image created about the Japanese police is positive. The police force is legitimised above all by its professionalism and success in providing assistance to people in need by arresting criminals and proving their guilt, but also by its monopoly position as the sole competent crisis solver.¹ This kind of representation does not come as a surprise as such; the paper, however, will show how this overall positive image is created by specific filmic techniques.