Japanese Task Force

Founded by L after he pinpoints Japan as Kira's base, the Task Force stands as the only force in the country devoted to the case. Known by several names, among them the Kira Investigation Team and the Kira Task Force, it operates out of Tokyo with its existence kept off the public record and every member's identity guarded. Once L dies, Light Yagami inherits both the group and the L alias, and the unit is presumed disbanded after the case finally closes.

When the National Police Agency grasps how lethal the assignment is, almost all of its officers withdraw, leaving only a small core who agree to meet L face to face. In the beginning they rotate through hotels at staggered hours until L's tower is completed. His tactics, bugging two officers' households, placing Light, Misa Amane, and Soichiro Yagami under detention, and hiring a con artist and a burglar, strain his relationship with the police. Funding pressure from the agency forces members to choose between the case and their jobs. Shuichi Aizawa departs after clashing with L, yet he and Hideki Ide quietly use department resources to help corner Kyosuke Higuchi, after which the team holds the recovered notebook for five years.

Following the time skip, Light assumes both the organization and the L identity. The kidnapping of NPA director Kanichi Takimura, together with Sayu Yagami, brings Aizawa and Ide back full-time, and the squad takes part in the raid on the Mafia's base, where Soichiro is mortally wounded. Growing suspicion of Light, fed by contact with Near, ultimately draws both the Task Force and Near's SPK into the Yellow Box Warehouse, where Teru Mikami records every name present but Near's countermove unmasks Light and ends the Kira case.

The unit's founder and first leader is L, who works under the alias Ryuzaki and is reckoned the world's greatest detective. Soichiro Yagami, chief of the National Police Agency, heads the original officers and is father to Light Yagami, the hidden Kira who joins to learn L's true name. The veteran ranks include the reserved Kanzo Mogi, the eager young Touta Matsuda, the coordinating Hideki Ide, the emotional Hirokazu Ukita, and Aizawa, who later becomes chief of the agency himself. L also leans on his handler Watari for logistics and brings in the con man Aiber and the cat burglar Wedy for specialized jobs. Adaptations add their own faces, among them Sanami in the films and Shoko Himura in the television drama.