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Fred27
6th October 2009, 14:51
What do the Japanese Police-force use for self-defense in hand-to-hand situations? Is there a whole "seitei" art they are taught or is it more individual from district to disctrict?

giantpuppy
6th October 2009, 17:17
Hope this helps
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiho-Jitsu

Andrew S
6th October 2009, 21:31
I believe that to qualify for the police, candidates are required to hold a nidan in judo or kendo.
The Tokyo riot police also train in Yoshinkan Aikido.

As for Taihojutsu, I believe that it was distilled from judo, kendo, jodo/jojutsu (with Shimizu as advisor) and Wado Ryu karate.

I am aquainted with a senior Tokyo police officer, I'll ask him next time I see him.

Fred27
6th October 2009, 21:43
Thanks Giantpuppy(!) and Andrew. :)

dengle
7th October 2009, 03:36
Taihojutsu evolved over time by combining elements of Jujutsu, Judo, Aikido, probably some karate and various weapons used by the police.

The Wikipedia site seems to be somewhat biased toward Mr. Cunningham who is more of a kickboxer than anything. I don't think that they were sttraining in point fighting and kickboxing at the Police academy.

People in the U.S. tend to misunderstand Taihojutsu and assume that it is a martial art, like karate or judo. They also tend to award themselves haigh dan grades in Taihojutsu. Taihojutsu is a police department self defense and arrest/control program. There are no ranks given.

Martial arts common in Japanese police departments are Yoshinkan Aikido, Judo and Kendo, although it may vary by region.

Lance Gatling
7th October 2009, 10:22
I've studied this for some time, and have the police manuals from over eighty years of the development of taihojutsu. Some of it is interesting, some is questionable. Japanese police taihojutu evolved over time.

The most recent version was punched up in the 1950's or so. It's taught in the police academies and colleges; one of my instructors in another martial art is the head of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police University's taihojutsu program.

Here's that program, complete with video.
http://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.jp/kouhoushi/no6/welcome/3_11.htm

For martial arts, I would think that earlier versions are more interesting than the current one. Someone is serializing a 1926 police manual 'Torite no Kata', which was developed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police as a combatives / arresting techniques, here:
http://judoforum.com/index.php?showtopic=26617&hl=torite
There's some serious brutality buried in there.

Robert Twiggers describes the Yoshinkan aikido one year program for the Kidotai, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police's 'Mobile Unit' special riot police, as he practiced alongside those gents.

AFAIK the Tokyo techniques are adopted across the country - I'm not sure there's really a national policy at the National Police Agency, but I've been trying to find out.

Lance Gatling
7th October 2009, 10:42
Twiggers' book is Angry White Pajamas.

Fred27
7th October 2009, 11:51
Looks alot more interesting than this self-proclaimed Soke I found on YouTube when searching for Taiho jitsu. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr-lFUtq48I)