After the initial ten-day extension, the prosecutor can request a further ten days of detention from a judge, before the suspect must either be charged or released.
Activists claim that requests for pre-trial detention after arrest are almost always granted by judges; in 1987, the rate of approval for all requests was 99.8%[2] and that same year, 85% of arrested detainees were kept in daiyō kangoku facilities for longer than seventy-two hours; more than a third of suspects were held without charge for longer than ten days by a judge's decision to extend the time limits.
[3] Activists also claim that authorities have a great deal of control over the suspect's well-being, and can restrict meals or access to family and that intensive interrogation practices are often used, and the condition of daiyō kangoku are considered worse than those in Japanese regular detention centers.
[4][5] Defenders of the current system argue that under generally conservative prefectural policies, extraordinary proof must be obtained before an arrest can be made.
[citation needed] Advocates of the daiyō kangoku system argue that this culture of restraint among the authorities merits and even requires the ability to place uncharged suspects in prolonged detention.