Suzuki Solio Police Interceptor Protects, Serves Ishikawa Prefecture

I just returned from two weeks in Japan, and you'll soon see articles about everything from Daikoku Parking Area to the pre-export history of my daily-driven kei van to the car model kit shops of Akihibara. We'll start off with a street-parked example of one of the many types of police vehicles that patrol the mean streets of Nippon: a Suzuki Solio, spotted in the coastal city of Kanazawa.

Kanazawa is the capital city of Ishikawa Prefecture, located on Honshu island about 300 miles to the northwest of Tokyo. Law enforcement there is provided by the Ishikawa Prefectural Police; the closest American analogy would be a combination of state police with county sheriff's departments, patrolling both the city and the countryside. I spotted the Solio in a sidewalk parking spot at this police station.

The front windows of the police station are decorated with friendly-looking plants and cute figurines, but the cops inside deal with serious crime. Here's a wanted poster showing some of Ishikawa Prefecture's worst desperados, with rewards amounting up to the equivalent of 53 grand in American dollars.

If these tough-looking suspects attempted to flee the law in, say, a new Toyota Crown Sport, a Solio would be no match for the 349 gas-electric horses in their (presumably stolen) getaway car. However, when it came time for the IPP to secure the scene of the bust and gather evidence, a compact minivan such as the Solio would be ideal for such duties. And yes, I made up the "Solio Police Interceptor" designation, because I think it sounds cool.

The Solio began life in the late 1990s, as a mildly widened and stretched version of the Wagon R kei car. Because both it and its engine were too big to meet kei standards, no Solios could ever be registered as kei cars. The current Solio is in its fourth generation, which debuted as a 2020 model.

Suzuki stopped selling highway-legal four-wheeled vehicles in the United States as 2013 models, but you'll see Suzuki cars and trucks everywhere on Japanese streets today (though the Honda N-Box currently reigns as the best-selling car in Japan; the best-selling Suzuki is now the Spacia, in third place).

Mitsubishi sells a rebadged version of the Solio called the Delica D:2 in its home market (not to be confused with the full-sized Delica van, itself a cousin of the US-market Outlander).

The Suzuki Solio is descended from the Wagon R kei car and is now in its fourth generation.

After taking the 200 mph Shinkansen bullet train from Tokyo, I spotted this van's snout peeking out near the train station.

The Solio was never a kei, legally speaking, because it is too wide and powerful to meet kei specifications.

This van is operated by the Ishikawa Prefectural Police in the coastal city of Kanazawa.

Prefectural police departments in Japan are something like a combination of local police and county sheriff's department.

Government-owned vehicles in Japan bear the Imperial 32-petal chrysanthemum seal on their grilles.

The lettering across the bottom of the hatch reads "Ishikawa Prefectural Police."

The characters in the upper left of the license plate indicate that this Suzuki is registered in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture.

Note the white gloves on the center console.