General Mission:

The United States Customs Service enforces more than 400 different laws and regulations, considerably more than any other federal law enforcement agency. The oldest federal U.S. law enforcement agency, the Customs Service was also the first to station agents on foreign soil. These agents operated both openly and covertly, and were the first to routinely employ undercover techniques for purposes of U.S. law enforcement. Today, in addition to enforcing Customs violations in the area of smuggling, money laundering, child pornography, commercial fraud, intellectual property rights, prison labor, anti-dumping and countervailing duties, and product safety, the Customs Service also has primary foreign jurisdiction with regard to investigations conducted on behalf of several other departments and agencies, e.g., the Arms Control and Export Act and International Trafficking in Arms Regulations (State), Export Administration Regulations (Commerce), and embargoes and sanctions (Office of Foreign Assets Control).

By formal agreement with the Department of Treasury, the Customs Attache represents the Secret Service and The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in all investigative matters in Japan.

In addition to the investigative functions, the Custom staff in Tokyo fields up to 90 telephone calls, faxes and walk-in tourist and trade-related inquiries per day.  An attempt is made to provide all requested support for the Embassy community, the military and both American and Japanese tourists.

Current Staffing:

American:  

Japanese Nationals:  

Pace of Work and Departmental Problems:

Being an operational U.S. law enforcement agency in a foreign country is always challenging.  This office strives to utilize its Japanese language capabilities to initiate personal contacts with our law enforcement counterparts in order to enhance the flow of information.

The Customs Attaché office supports our domestic operations by securing full and prompt cooperation from foreign authorities to assist in investigating federal crimes.

On June 17, 1997, a Customs Mutual Assistance Agreement was signed by the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and the Charge’ d’ Affaires, ad interim, Japan Embassy, Washington, D.C.  This agreement will facilitate the exchange of information between the Customs administrations to ensure the proper application of customs laws to prevent, investigate and repress customs offenses.

Principal Points of Contact:

The majority of our criminal investigations are funneled through the National Police Agency.  Our office deals primarily with the Organized Crime Control Department, Community Safety Bureau/ Narcotic and Firearms, Foreign Affairs Division, Education Training Division, and International Affairs Department.

Within the Ministry of Justice our usual contacts are the International Affairs Division and the Public Security Investigation Agency.

Most trade-related matters involve the Ministry of Finance, and/or The Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

Since its inception in June 1997, the Customs Mutual Assistance Agreement with Japanese Customs will further strengthen our international cooperation to combat smuggling, illicit trade in narcotics, and transnational crime.