Detective Day

What Is Detective Day?

Every May 21st is also "Detective Day" (探偵の日, Tantei no Hi) in Japan. On May 21, 1891 (Meiji 24), an agency called Teikoku Tanmeikai (帝國探明會) placed an advertisement in the Asahi Shimbun offering to "locate swindlers and thieves" and "investigate people's conduct" — considered the first advertisement for a detective business in Japan. The day was designated by the Detective Day Selection Committee of the Japan Detective Association (社団法人探偵協会) to raise awareness of the detective profession as a partner for solving all kinds of problems.

The Beginnings of Japan's Detective Business

Detectives emerged as a profession in Japan during the Meiji era. In 1895, Saburo Iwai (岩井三郎), a former officer of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, opened the Iwai Saburo Office — considered the oldest detective agency in Japan whose lineage continues today; a research company descended from it still operates. Records also show that a detective firm had been founded earlier, in 1889, by Hyakuta Mitsunaga, a former samurai in Nihonbashi. Today, Japan's detective businesses are regulated by the Act on the Proper Conduct of Detective Business, and agencies must file a notification with the prefectural Public Safety Commission.

Japan's Mystery Fiction Tradition

Although Detective Day comes from the real-life profession, many people think first of fictional detectives. Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, with his method of observation and deduction, deeply influenced detective fiction worldwide, including in Japan, where Western detective stories were translated from the Meiji era onward. Edogawa Ranpo (江戸川乱歩, whose pen name is a phonetic rendering of "Edgar Allan Poe") pioneered Japanese detective fiction in the 1920s. Seishi Yokomizo (creator of the beloved detective Kosuke Kindaichi) and, more recently, authors like Soji Shimada and Keigo Higashino (whose "The Devotion of Suspect X" became an international bestseller) have given Japan a distinctive voice in global crime fiction.

Detective Stories in Japanese Pop Culture

The detective figure — the brilliant, observant solver of mysteries — is one of Japanese pop culture's most enduring archetypes, from the long-running manga "Detective Conan" (名探偵コナン, "Case Closed") to many other manga, anime, and TV dramas. Real detective work, by contrast, centers on tasks such as locating people and background or infidelity investigations, carried out within the limits of the law.

Fun Facts

• Detective Conan: Gosho Aoyama's manga "Case Closed" (名探偵コナン, Detective Conan), running since 1994, is one of Japan's longest-running and most internationally successful mystery franchises.
• Edogawa Ranpo Award: Japan's Edogawa Ranpo Prize (江戸川乱歩賞, established 1954) is one of the country's most prestigious awards for new mystery writers, named after the author who pioneered Japan's detective fiction tradition.