The Special Assault Team (特殊急襲部隊, Tokushu Kyūshū Butai?) is a paramilitary counter terrorism unit under the Japanese National Police Agency. The SAT is mandated, along with the Anti-Firearms Squad and the Counter-NBC Terrorism Squad, for counterterrorism missions and incidents involving firearms or criminals which require an armed response beyond the capabilities of local law enforcement in Japan. Most information on the unit has been confidential, its existence officially revealed only in 1996.
Currently, SAT is officially known in Japanese as Special Unit (特殊部隊, Tokushu Butai?) and individual teams officially take the name of the Metropolitan or Prefectural police departments to which they are assigned; an example would be Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Special Unit (警視庁特殊部隊, Keishicho Tokushu Butai?, Metropolitan Police Department Special Unit) for the SAT assigned to the Tokyo Metropolitan Area.
The military counterpart of the SAT is the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force's Japanese Special Forces Group.
Famous quotes containing the words special, assault and/or team:
“History repeats itself, but the special call of an art which has passed away is never reproduced. It is as utterly gone out of the world as the song of a destroyed wild bird.”
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)
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—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“Romeo. I dreamt a dream tonight.
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Romeo. In bed asleep, while they do dream things true.
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She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes
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Over men’s noses as they lie asleep.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)