At least 158 suspects arrested by investigators have refused to be questioned while remaining in detention facilities since 2024, a lawyers' group has found, with cases recorded in at least 28 prefectures. The group compiled the figure from reports by its members, it said on the 6th.
The refusals point to a widening dispute over whether a suspect must submit to questioning. Investigators treat interrogation as a suspect's duty. Defense lawyers argue the interrogation room is not neutral ground, and that suspects who invoke their right to silence are questioned anyway and pressed toward false confessions.
The group, Kakucho Chōsho Kyohiken o Jitsugen Suru Kai — roughly, the association for realizing the right to refuse interrogation — was formed in 2024 to address the lack of protection for the right to silence in interrogation rooms. More than 140 lawyers belong to it.
It publishes a practical manual and templates for documents that inform police and prosecutors of a refusal. Its secretariat advises suspects not to leave the detention facility, the stance that has brought it into conflict with investigators.
A refusal that ended without charges
Among the cases the group counted, one suspect arrested in a bribery case kept silent, then switched to refusing questioning after a police officer told him that silence "can work against you." Prosecutors did not charge him, according to the secretariat.
The count covers refusals that began partway through a suspect's detention period, not only those declared from the start.