TOKYO -- A newspaper's poll published Tuesday has found that trust in the once-lauded Japanese police, battered by a recent succession of scandals and blunders, has plummeted to the lowest level in the 22-year history of the paper's survey.
Of 2,100 people interviewed by the daily Asahi Shimbun, only 38 percent said they trusted the police while 60 percent said they did not.In 1998, when the previous poll was conducted, 71 percent said they trusted the police while only 26 percent said they did not.
Critics have pointed to a strong "old boy" network and the fact that the 230,000 strong police force is run by an elite of 520 officers who are seen as reluctant to introduce reforms as a source of some of the problems.
A flood of scandals has hit Japanese police the past year, with one prefectural department -- whose officers were involved in incidents such as extortion and concealment of drug use -- becoming so deeply implicated it was known as "the department of scandals."
The prior low in public trust in Japan's police came in 1978, the first year the poll was conducted. But even then 69 percent said they trusted the police.
Asked who was most to blame, 70 percent of respondents said the overall makeup of the police organization itself.
The most notorious incident took place earlier this year, when two senior police officials engaged in a drinking binge rather than going to investigate the discovery of a 19-year-old woman imprisoned for nine years by an older man.
Police had also falsely claimed to have cracked that case and were criticized for bungling the initial investigation.
Most recently, two policemen in northern Japan were disciplined after they became drunk and violent towards the owner of a restaurant, Kyodo news agency reported on Tuesday.
Responding to public outrage, former Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi said his government would place a priority on police reform. But officials have said passing reform bills through parliament during the current session could prove difficult.