Last night after 7:00 p.m. U.S. President Obama arrived on Air Force One. He soon had an informal dinner with Prime Minister Abe at a Ginza sushi restaurant — whether the talks advanced anything is unclear. The main photo is “At a sushi-restaurant dinner, Prime Minister Abe (second from right) pours for President Obama (far right) = Ginza, Tokyo, 8:39 p.m., April 23, 2014” (Cabinet Public Relations Office).
This site notes that visitors coming to Palaceside Building by car from afar can easily reach it from the Shutoko exits at Hitotsubashi, Kitanomaru, Daikancho and Kandabashi. Today, for the summit and a visit to Meiji Jingu, traffic controls are in force around the city. The Metropolitan Police asked people to “avoid entering the city center during the visit if possible.” We hope those coming to the building were all right. Controls and checkpoints will continue until the president leaves tomorrow, so please watch the latest traffic information.
On Sunday the 20th I drove to Haneda Airport on an errand; roads to the airport already had checkpoint preparations here and there. At a red light I looked into a checkpoint: a senior officer was teaching a junior how to stop and guide cars, a live rehearsal. I had thought checkpoints followed a single manual everywhere; in fact each site is a little different and needs fine attention.
The Metropolitan Police mobilized about 16,000 officers, more than a third of the force, in a strict posture. Around Ota Ward (Haneda), the U.S. Embassy in Minato Ward and the State Guest House, riot police and bomb-sniffing dogs were posted. More than 10,000 security cameras, including temporary extras, were used to find suspicious people and vehicles, the Mainichi reported. The photo
below is the Mainichi’s “Ahead of the president’s visit, an officer patrols near the U.S. Embassy with a guard dog = Minato Ward, Tokyo, 3:51 p.m., April 18, 2014.”
To prevent crowd-targeted terrorism, JR, Tokyo Metro, Toei Subway and others have closed coin lockers and some trash bins at major terminals such as Tokyo Station. Haneda is the same. On the Toei line I use to commute, in-car announcements have asked people to watch for suspicious persons since early this week; yesterday and this morning there were many officers on the Takebashi Station platform as well.
President Obama’s visit is part of an East Asia tour that also includes South Korea, the Philippines and Malaysia; tomorrow morning, the 25th, he leaves for South Korea. A U.S. president as a state guest has not come since Clinton in 1996. The Metropolitan Police’s tight security is the kind of work that is taken for granted when nothing happens.