The prosecutors' assertion that Ghosn could destroy evidence if released is complete nonsense. If anything, it is the Japanese side which is undoubtedly busy destroying evidence that would exonerate Ghosn, while he's locked up and unable to secure evidence that can be used in his defense.
As an American expat in Japan, I have witnessed cases where this same Tokyo District Court has intentionally destroyed evidence which would support an American plaintiff's civil case for damages against a large Japanese corporation. In this case filed by the American plaintiff, his own Japanese lawyers also deliberately destroyed evidence that was beneficial to him. I have proof of these illegal acts by the Tokyo District Court and Japanese lawyers and can provide it to news organizations if they're interested in covering this.
The Japanese judicial system is the most corrupt and opaque in the developed world. This is why foreigners are barred from practicing as lawyers in Japan.
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In France, M Goshn is still CEO of Renault since he is « presumed innocent until proven guilty ». In Japan, he has been removed from his positions at Nissan and Mitsubishi immediately...He has been presumed guilty...frightening system. It would be interesting to read a paper in the NYT on the presumption of innocence a cross judiciary systems.
2
Japan's treatment of Ghosn is barbaric and medieval. It also demonstrates a clear double standard for foreigners in Japan. Japanese companies are among the most unethical and corrupt in the world. Dozens of Japanese executives have been implicated in far worse financial wrongdoing and data falsification at numerous large Japanese companies in recent years. This includes large scale illegal activities by Japanese management at companies such as:
KYB (2018), Kawakin (2018), Suruga Bank (2018), Toray (2017), Mitsubishi Materials (2017), Kobe Steel (2017), Subaru (2017), Mitsubishi Motors (2016), Suzuki Motors (2016), Asahi Kasei (2015), Toshiba (2015), Lixil (2015), Toyo Tire and Rubber (2015), Bridgestone (2015), Hitachi (2015), Riken (2014), Takata (2014), TOKYU Corporation (2013, 2002), Takashimaya (2013), Mizuho Bank (2013), Nomura (2012, 1997, 1991), Daio Paper (2011), Olympus (2011), Nikko Cordial (2006), Kanebo (2005), Seibu (2004), TEPCO (2002), Snow Brand (2002), Nippon Meat (2002), Bridgestone (2000), Mitsubishi Motors (2000), Long Term Credit Bank of Japan (1998), The Bank of Japan (1998), Industrial Bank of Japan (1998, 1991), Yamaichi Securities (1997), Nikko Securities (1997), Daiwa Bank (1995), Itoman Corp (1991), Marubeni (1991), NEC (1991), Fuji Bank (1991) and Sumitomo Bank (1990).
Yet, not a single Japanese executive at any of these companies has been given the Ghosn treatment. This reaks of Japanese nationalism, racism, insularity and xenophobia.
7
Japan starting to look more like North-Korea, detaining someone like this without any possibillity to talk to family.
If they don´t win this, it will be a big scandal (already is).
2
Not a binding contract, “death test”....these are lawyerly weasel words. He clearly did enter into an agreement for deferred compensation which was not disclosed. His argument is that it was ok because it was not binding, apparently.
My relatively high opinion of Japan, country, culture, people, products, has been brought down a notch. A judicial system or power structure, whatever you choose to call it, that allows “lock em up” and don’t let them talk to anybody, is scary.
Is this the reality citizens live with in one of the worlds most advanced “democracies”?
4
Going after foreign executives is a favorite pastime of the Japanese. The country is deeply insular, nationalist and xenophobic at its core, so none of this is news to those of us who have worked professionally in Japan. Before Ghosn and Kelly, there was Michael Woodford at Olympus and Julie Hamp at Toyota, whose career was also destroyed when she was thrown in a Japanese jail.
The Olympus saga is still going on years after the Japanese company fired its British CEO Woodford in 2011. He was initially fired after he exposed one of the largest cases of corporate fraud in history by the company's Japanese management. Instead of hailing him as a hero, the Japanese company accused him of not understanding Japanese management style and the Japanese culture. His name was dragged through the mud in Japan and he was declared persona non grata. As Woodford recounts in his bestselling book "Exposure", he had to flee the country fearing for his life and physical safety.
In a case eerily resembling Nissan's accusations against Ghosn, Olympus subsequently sued Woodford in 2016 over allegations of wrongdoing surrounding an executive pension plan and this lawsuit is still going on. Olympus is claiming $20 million dollars from him and former colleague and ex-company Director Paul Hillman, alleging that they conspired to maximize their pension benefits by unlawful means. Woodford has characterized the lawsuit against him as an act of "revenge". Corporate vengeance is alive and well in Japan.
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Then there is the bizarre case of Julie Hamp, an American executive who moved to Japan to work for Toyota in 2015. Shortly after moving to Japan, she was arrested and thrown in jail after it was found that her father in Michigan had sent her what is considered to be a relatively common prescription painkiller in the U.S., but one which users need permission to import to Japan.
As William Pesek wrote in Bloomberg at the time, "Authorities could have chosen to confiscate the 57 pills sent to Hamp and schooled her on local regulations. Instead, they decided to make an example of her in ways that could damage corporate Japan’s efforts to attract foreign talent and diversify its boardrooms", and, "What’s even more troubling is that the police made the case public at all. Hamp was forced to do a perp walk on live television. (It led the news on national broadcaster NHK.) But it’s safe to say the police wouldn’t even have told the media if a male Japanese Toyota executive were allegedly involved in similar lawbreaking. Meanwhile, the thrust of the media coverage about Hamp’s ordeal has been cringeworthy. Rather than treat it as an unfortunate aberration, the media have used it as an excuse to pillory companies for trying to attract foreign executives to Japan in the first place."
Now we have the trumped-up charges against Ghosn and Kelly, exacerbated by their horrific treatment by Nissan's Japanese management, the Japanese judicial system and the Japanese media. Bad Japan!
@Steve Jackman
You fail to mention that it was sent in a packaging style to purposefully hide it if I am not mistaken, which shows intent to break the law.
I wonder if the future career of the prosecutors is dependent on him successfully prosecuting Ghosn? In Japan, where age based promotions are common, I wouldn't be surprised if he has been instructed by his bosses that nothing short of a conviction will lead to his demotion or at a minimum, stagnation in his current position.
Because the behavior of the prosecutors just does not make sense.
1
The arrest of Ghosn should not be looked at in isolation. It reflects the lack of transparency in Japanese corporations and the judicial system. The Japanese prosecutors have targeted specific businessmen / politicians for political reasons before --arresting them for violations for which others were given a pass (the Livedoor case, for instance). Japan has seen a lot of corporate scandals in the past few years, but CEOs are almost never arrested.
Japanese prosecutors always keep suspects in custody for long durations to coax confessions. Once indicted, 99% will be found guilty as Japanese judges always side with the prosecutors. Even when they fail to indict, they can still inflict damage on their targets. When the opposition party was expected to win the election in 2009, the prosecutors went after the opposition party leader, Ozawa. They found nothing against him but succeeded in tarnishing his reputation forever thanks to the mainstream media, which functions as their PR team.
This time, the Japanese style plea bargain, which came into effect last year, helped Nissan's Japanese managers to side-step the internal governance structure and go to the prosecutors directly. It's unfortunate that the new plea bargain system only helped to connect the corporate lack of transparency with the judicial lack of transparency in Japan.
7
Flight risk? Tamper with evidence? After detaining him for 50 days, these Japanese prosecutors are now simply torturing the man.
He may be guilty and if so, let the court determine that. Otherwise, we must presume he's innocent until proven otherwise.
Justice does not have any nationality attached to it. We'll all know it when we see it and it is invisible in this case.
8
Ghosn increasingly appears the victim of a conspiracy by the Japanese management of Nissan. That he has been held without proper due process for two months is appalling.
11
@John
There is no indication (from this article) that he is being held without due process, only that Japan does not recognize the same legal rights as some other countries.
6
From what I understand, he is being treated the way all others are in the Japanese court system. Whether he is in the court system due to a conspiracy is another question.
6
@Camille
@ JJ
Okay so Japan's notion of due process does not remotely approach what we in the US would regard as normal. Wonderful.
3
For a "modern" country, Japan has a justice system which surprises me.
On the other hand, our own country is far to lax in its treatment of white collar crime.
In any case, I hope justice is served.
2
It is astonishing in this day and age, that Ghosn, although under investigation in Japan, and not convicted of anything, is not allowed to talk to his family. One would think a modern democracy as Japan wouldn't operate like that. And who is leaking the details of the allegations to the media?
17
In an earlier article in the Times about Ghosn, readers were informed that in addition to being a "big flosser," Ghosn was born in Rio de Janeiro. The English and French versions of Wikipedia, however, state that he was born in Porto Velho (in the jungle state of Rondônia), whereas the Portuguese version says he was born in the frontier town (also in Rondônia) of Guajará-Mirim.
I'm more inclined to believe that Wikipedia (though which one I can't say) got it right.
2
I thought modern states evolved past this a century or more ago. Time for justice in Japan to learn about liberal rights. Maybe international law is a recourse. Very unsettling, but makes me appreciate our system more.
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