It had the same commissar roles in relation to exterior enemies or suspicious persons, and it watched inside units for possible defectors or traitors under the security doctrine of Kikosaku.
Attached to navy units, they served as Colonial police in some occupied Pacific areas.
Later accusations of war crimes were made against them in that role for such acts as coercion of comfort women from Indonesia, Indochina and China into sexual slavery.
[2] In addition to its police responsibilities, it was the operative branch of the Secret Service Branch of the Imperial Japanese Navy (Information Office (情報局, Jōhō-kyoku), which was responsible for recovering and analyzing information and for the execution of undercover operations.
In the final weeks of the Pacific War, it was among the security units prepared for combat against the proposed Allied invasion of Japan.