# 刑事訴訟法 / Code of Criminal Procedure — 第百四十九条 (Article 149) This is the Markdown twin of https://japanlaw.org/en/code-of-criminal-procedure/art-149. Every law, and how to address a provision: https://japanlaw.org/llms.txt. The same laws as MCP tools (no sign-in): https://japanlaw.org/mcp. - Law: 刑事訴訟法 (Code of Criminal Procedure), 昭和二十三年法律第百三十一号 - English title "Code of Criminal Procedure": Ministry of Justice translation - Kind: Act — the distinction between 法律 (Act), 政令 (Cabinet Order), 省令 (Ministerial Order) and 条例 (local ordinance) decides who may issue it and what it may say. - Provision: 第百四十九条 (Article 149) — address `art-149` - Text in force since: 2026-10-20 - URL (the page that opens at this provision): https://japanlaw.org/en/code-of-criminal-procedure/art-149 - e-Gov law ID: 323AC0000000131 — never renamed. A permanent link, `/l/{lawId}/{address}` on this site, redirects to the page. - Every provision below carries its address and its URL on the line under it. - Japanese text: e-Gov 法令検索, Digital Agency (デジタル庁). English: as marked on each line below. Only the Japanese as published by the government has legal effect; the text below is a copy of it. Every English rendering below is a translation and says which kind: the Ministry of Justice's translation, or this site's machine translation, whose model and date the Sources list names. They are never merged and never substituted for one another. --- ### 第百四十九条 art-149 · https://japanlaw.org/en/code-of-criminal-procedure/art-149 **第一項** 医師、歯科医師、助産師、看護師、弁護士（外国法事務弁護士を含む。）、弁理士、公証人、宗教の職に在る者又はこれらの職に在つた者は、業務上委託を受けたため知り得た事実で他人の秘密に関するものについては、証言を拒むことができる。但し、本人が承諾した場合、証言の拒絶が被告人のためのみにする権利の濫用と認められる場合（被告人が本人である場合を除く。）その他裁判所の規則で定める事由がある場合は、この限りでない。 art-149/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/en/code-of-criminal-procedure/art-149/par-1 A physician, dentist, midwife, nurse, attorney (including a foreign lawyer registered in Japan), patent attorney, notary public or a person engaged in a religious occupation, or any other person who was formerly engaged in any of these professions may refuse to give testimony on particulars pertaining to the confidential information that said person came to know through entrusted professional conduct; provided however, that this does not apply when the person in question has given consent, when the refusal is deemed to be an abuse of rights exclusively for the interests of the defendant (unless said person is the defendant), or where there exist other circumstances provided for by the Rules of Court. Ministry of Justice translation with a slip corrected by this site — not the Ministry's text; the Ministry printed: "A physician, dentist, midwife, nurse, attorney (including a foreign lawyer registered in Japan), patent attorney, notary public or a person engaged in a religious occupation, or any other person who was formerly engaged in any of these professions may refuse to give testimony on particulars pertaining to the confidential information that said person came to know through entrusted professional conduct; provided however, that this does not apply when the person in question has given consent, when the refusal is deemed to be an abuse of rights exclusively for the interests of the accused (unless said person is the accused), or where there exist other circumstances provided for by the Rules of Court." — https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/3739/tb --- ## Sources - claude-opus-5-5 — Corrections to the Ministry of Justice's English of the Code of Criminal Procedure, written 2026-11-06 - e-Gov 法令検索, Digital Agency (デジタル庁) — 刑事訴訟法 — the text in force from 2026-10-20 (https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/323AC0000000131/20261020_508AC0000000067), retrieved 2026-11-06 - Japanese Law Translation Database System, Ministry of Justice (法務省) — Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法), Article 149, paragraph (1) — the Ministry of Justice's English as printed (https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/3739/tb), retrieved 2026-11-06 - Japanese Law Translation Database System, Ministry of Justice (法務省) — Code of Criminal Procedure — Ministry of Justice translation (part 1 of 2) (https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/3739/tb), retrieved 2026-11-06 - This site's parser, version 225 — 刑事訴訟法 — structure, counts, cross-references and defined terms, computed 2026-11-06