TOKYO - Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department plans to create a dedicated office next spring to handle permits for driverless vehicles and to investigate crashes involving them, the first unit of its kind at any police force in Japan. The move comes as Waymo and its Japanese partners prepare to launch the country's first fully driverless taxi service in the capital in 2027.
The office, tentatively called the Autonomous Driving Planning Office, will sit inside the Traffic General Affairs Division of the department's Traffic Bureau, according to reports on Friday by Jiji Press, the Nikkei, the Yomiuri Shimbun and the Asahi Shimbun. The Nikkei said it would open in April 2027. Jiji said the department confirmed the plan in an interview. The department is also considering upgrading the office to a full division in the spring of 2028.
Its core work will be Level 4 automation, in which a system handles all of the driving under specified conditions with no driver aboard. Japan opened public roads to Level 4 operation in April 2023 under an amended Road Traffic Act, which requires operators to obtain permits from prefectural public safety commissions. The new office will in effect decide whether operating plans submitted to the Tokyo Metropolitan Public Safety Commission should be approved, and will press operators to run safely, the Yomiuri reported.
It will also prepare for crashes. Working out why a vehicle with no driver crashed takes specialized knowledge and skills, and the office is meant to build up investigative methods that other forces can draw on. It will take in officers seconded from police elsewhere in Japan, and when an autonomous vehicle is involved in a crash outside Tokyo, it can send officers to help with the investigation if local police ask. The office also plans accident prevention campaigns and outreach to vehicle makers, working with the manufacturers and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
The legal stakes are significant. If a Level 4 vehicle with no one at the wheel is involved in a crash that injures or kills someone, the operator or the vehicle maker could face charges of professional negligence resulting in death or injury, the Yomiuri reported. A key test would be whether the crash could have been avoided had proper measures been taken.
Tokyo has already seen a crash blamed on an automated system. In August 2025, a Level 2 automated bus, which still relies on a driver to take over when needed, struck a roadside tree in Hachioji during a Tokyo Metropolitan Government trial, lightly injuring three people, including passengers. The metropolitan government said a malfunction in the vehicle's system caused the crash.
The timing tracks the capital's driverless taxi plans. Waymo, the taxi-hailing app operator GO and the taxi company Nihon Kotsu said in September that they aim to launch Japan's first fully driverless commercial taxi service in Tokyo in 2027, starting small and expanding gradually to about 100 vehicles. Waymo has been testing on Tokyo streets since 2025, with its cars driving autonomously under the supervision of trained Nihon Kotsu crew. The Yomiuri said the office is being created because Level 4 applications from operators are expected to rise as the technology advances, and because crashes caused by the systems themselves are expected.
The national government wants 10,000 buses, taxis and trucks operating autonomous driving services by fiscal 2030, The Japan Times reported. None of the reports said how many officers will staff the new office.
