There are a LOT of police in Tokyo. I mean a LOT. Seems like every few blocks you run into a group of them. You don’t see many police cars and the one time that I was flagged down, it was the police officer stepping onto the road.
Perhaps one of the reasons why Tokyo is so safe (although I think it is more cultural, than due to police presence).
I am always driving past these fellows and I have yet to figure out what they do. They just stare at the passing cars, sometimes a whistle in their mouth just waiting to be blown. At other times holding their walkie-talkie and watching the traffic drive by.
Always staring. Never moving. I don’t understand. (smile)
Michael Weening: a few pictures 
You’re not supposed to understand. lol.
Depends on where you see these guys, but you often see them around the embassies.. Just standing there. At the U.S. Embassy, you can’t even walk on the same side as the fence of the embassy. They make you walk on the other side (across the street) from whichever fence you’re walking along. They only let you cross at one intersection and only if you have proper documentation (usually a passport) to get to the outer gate.
A few other places that have police out like that are some of the government buildings… they close off the gates when the ‘uyoku’ (right wing -ers) drive around in their big black cars, trucks, buses with their music blaring and flags flying…
True enough. This is near the Russian embassy (and TAC). Chinese embassy is the same, I walk by them every day. On one side, China and the Tokyo police, on the other side Japanese people with banners and praying.
Actually, I think those are the Falun Gong (Falun Dafa) people preying outside of the Chinese embassy. According to the driver of a taxi I was in, the police are always outside the embassy. They are actually special riot police (kidotai) and aside from government ministry security and embassy duty, they get to keep order at anti-nuclear protests and the like.