kōban

thumb|right|A kōban in the Ginza district of Tokyo thumb|right|A kōban in Kameari, Katsushika, Tokyo – the model for the kōban in the [[manga Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen-mae Hashutsujo]]

A is a small neighborhood police station found in Japan. The term also refers to the smallest organizational unit in a modern Japanese prefectural police force. Small kōban buildings, staffed by uniformed officers at around 6,000 locations across the country, are the bases for community policing activities which complement the work of larger, central police stations. Although often translated into English as "police box", kōban bear little resemblance to the police boxes formerly found in the United Kingdom or the police call boxes formerly found in the United States, as they are larger and more permanent structures than both police boxes and call boxes.