Koban

Koban

A kōban (交番, kōban?) is a small neighborhood police station found in Japan. Kōban also refers to the smallest organizational unit in today's Japanese police system. In addition to central police stations, Japanese uniformed police work is done from small buildings located within the community, a form of community policing. As of 2007, there are about 6,000 kōban all over Japan. Since the 1990s, many of them are found with signs in Roman letters: "Koban".