What to do if you are suddenly accused of being a molester

■ The Issue
　What should you do if you are suddenly accused of being a molester while on a train?

■ The Conclusion
　You should stay on the station platform and contact an acquaintance who is a lawyer or a bar association from that spot using your mobile phone.

　Then, explain, "My lawyer is on their way, so I will wait here until they arrive. I will not move."

　If you cannot do that, start recording audio or video on your smartphone immediately (it is better if you can speak and record the current situation yourself).

　Do not move to the station office or the railway police station(especially do not move to the station office; the reason will be explained later).

[Updated 2014.06.05] A bar association may not be able to respond immediately, so an acquaintance who is a lawyer is the best option. For those who say, "I don't know any lawyers!", I think it would be useful to search online in advance for law firms that claim to provide immediate support and save their phone numbers.

[Updated 2015.06.08]

[Updated 2017.02.08]

■ "Reference" sites for when you do not know any lawyers

　If you are arrested | Criminal Defense Forum | For non-lawyers - Criminal Defense Forum
http://www.keibenforum.net/public/arrest_faq.html

Free legal consultation for "crime" consultations and troubles - Bengo4.comhttp://www.bengo4.com/hanzai/

[6/5: Update] For reference, I have also listed the contact information for the duty lawyer system, but the duty lawyer system is premised on providing defense after an arrest. In terms of speed, it is best to contact an individual law firm. Searching the PC site of Bengo4.com is also useful.

■ A bad pattern, No. 1
　Running away.

It is the worst thing you can do. Even if you are innocent, running away is the worst possible choice.

Even if you are truly innocent, the people around you believe that you are the molester. In fact, the very reason they are preventing you from leaving is that they believe you are the molester.

If you run away in such a situation, there is a possibility that you could be arrested as a quasi-flagrant offender depending on the circumstances (Article 212, Paragraph 2, Items 1 and 4 of the Code of Criminal Procedure,Article 213 of the same Code. However, regarding quasi-flagrant offender arrests, as noted in the judicial precedents cited below, there are several points of contention in practice, but I will limit this to introducing the precedents and omit them).

If you run away, even if you are not arrested as a quasi-flagrant offender, the possibility of being taken to a police station for "voluntary" questioning increases dramatically. This is because it leads the police—and by extension, the judge—to believe that you ran away because you are the real culprit.

And even if you deny the accusation at the police station after being taken there voluntarily (even if your innocence is the truth), in a situation where (1) there is a victim's statement and (2) there is the fact that you tried to run away, it is extremely likely that an arrest warrant will be issued by a judge and you will be arrested.

◎Sendai High Court Judgment, April 1, 1969, Keishu Vol. 27, No. 5, p. 1170
"By the way, 'when being pursued as a criminal' as referred to in Article 212, Paragraph 2, Item 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is construed to mean a case where the person is being pursued or called out by someone who clearly recognizes that the person is the criminal, with the intent of making an arrest. Needless to say, for an arrest of a quasi-flagrant offender under the same item to be permitted, it is necessary that the existence of such pursuit of the criminal be outwardly clear to the person making the arrest. However, it is construed that it is not necessarily required that such pursuit continue until the very moment of the arrest by the person making the arrest. Therefore, even in cases where the pursuer is forced to stop the pursuit due to circumstances such as their own lack of strength or interference by others, as long as the series of circumstances regarding the pursuit was outwardly clear to the person making the arrest, the arrest can still be construed as fulfilling the requirement of 'when being pursued as a criminal'."

◎Osaka High Court Judgment, September 26, 1996, Hanrei Taimuzu No. 942, p. 129
"Regarding Article 212, Paragraph 2, Item 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure
'When being pursued as a criminal' as referred to in the same item should be construed to mean a case where the person is being pursued or called out by someone who clearly recognizes that the person is the criminal, with the intent of making an arrest (omitted)"
"Regarding Item 4 of the same paragraph
Since the item itself lacks sufficient connection between the crime and the criminal, it should be required that it be clearly recognized that not much time has passed since the crime was committed, more so than in Items 1 through 3 of the same paragraph, in order to make an arrest as a quasi-flagrant offender (omitted)"

■ Bad Pattern No. 2

Acting by blindly trusting information on the internet (for example, the following site).

What should I do if I am about to be mistaken for a molester? I am going to ride the train next time... - Yahoo! Chiebukurohttp://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1190235171

The information listed on the above site is not "entirely wrong," but much of it is inaccurate.

For example, the above site initially suggests, based on Article 217 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, that if you present your ID and hand over a business card, you cannot be arrested as a flagrant offender.

However, Article 217 of the Code of Criminal Procedure does not apply if there is a risk that the criminal will flee. And this requirement of a risk of fleeing is recognized relatively easily. Just because you provide your address and name does not logically and inevitably eliminate the risk of fleeing, does it?

Also, there are cases where it cannot be confirmed that the presented address and name belong to the person. Therefore, even if you say or do what is written on the above site, the result will actually be "So what?"

There is no doubt that accurate legal knowledge will protect you. However, legal knowledge is meaningless unless it is accurate.

■ The reason you must not move from the station platform

The reason I stated in the "Conclusion" at the beginning that you must not move from the station platform is that if you move to the station office or the railway police box, a lawyer will not be able to meet you.

In particular, since a station office is basically a space belonging to a private company, you cannot necessarily enter it just because you are a lawyer. And while you are unable to meet with a lawyer, a police officer may visit the station office and take you to the police station; this is a common pattern.

One book points this out as follows (this book is one of the masterpieces regarding the defense of false molestation charges).

“The more a man accused of being a molester has not actually committed a molestation act, the more he often goes to the station office willingly, thinking he will clear his name or that they will understand if he talks it out in the station office. However, once he goes to the station office, he is separated from the woman and cannot even talk to her. Then, a police officer who arrives shortly after takes him to the nearest police station, where he is told that he has been arrested in the act by the woman, and he ends up being detained at the police station as is.” (Kenzo Akiyama et al. (eds.), 'Continued: Defense of False Molestation Charges' [Gendai Jinbunsha, 2009] p. 25).

■ Summary

I have written at length above, but in the end, if you get into trouble due to a false molestation charge, please contact a lawyer or a bar association immediately.

It would not hurt to save the phone numbers of lawyers or bar associations in your mobile phone now.

[Added May 16, 2023]
If you have not committed molestation (if you are not the perpetrator), please remember the content of the rights notification by Judge Kunio Harada below. You must not admit to it.