Japan: A member of the Kempeitaii secret police wearing the Kenhei military police armband poses for a portrait with his wife, c. late 1930s

The Kempeitai ('Military Police Corps') was the military police arm of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1881 to 1945. It was not a conventional military police, but more of a secret police, akin to Nazi Germany's Gestapo.

While it was institutionally part of the Imperial Japanese Army, it also discharged the functions of the military police for the Imperial Japanese Navy under the direction of the Admiralty Minister (although the IJN had its own much smaller Tokkeitai), those of the executive police under the direction of the Interior Minister, and those of the judicial police under the direction of the Justice Minister.

A member of the corps was called a Kempei.

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