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.