Carlos Ghosn’s ‘Great Escape’ Writes a Hollywood Ending to Japanese Imprisonment

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1. When it became apparent that Nissan was going to be put under the control of Renault in spring of 2018, and no longer be equal in the partnership, Nissan executives than consulted with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s legal adviser, former special prosecutor Akihide Kumada. They wanted to know the feasibility of a plea bargain that would allow prosecutors to put Ghosn in jail, but spare those loyal to the greater interests of a “Japanese” Nissan.

   As reported in Litera and other Japanese media, Kumada functions as a special counsel for the ruling political party in Japan, headed by Abe, and set up meetings with the Tokyo Special Prosecutors Office. Two or more Nissan executives made cooperation agreements with the Ministry of Justice guaranteeing them criminal immunity—all they had to do was turn over evidence damaging to their former boss. The phrase “two or more” is frustrating to use, but the Tokyo prosecutors refuse to divulge, even to the defense, how many people at Nissan cut a deal with them.

   Ghosn has called it a conspiracy, and you look up the strict definition—“a secret agreement made between two or more people or groups to do something bad or illegal that will harm someone else”—that’s clearly what it was.

   At first it worked out well—an almost perfect plot. The Tokyo Prosecutor Special Investigator’s Office used new plea-bargaining rules to put together what it hoped would be a slam-dunk case. Japan only allowed plea-bargaining from 2018 onward, and while the Ghosn case is not the first to use the system, it is the most spectacular and controversial.

   Nissan executives lured Ghosn back to Japan on false pretenses. On Nov. 19 last year at Haneda Airport, prosecutors boarded his private jet, arrested him, and took him away on the spot. The initial charges, related to Ghosn under-reporting his income, were flimsy allegations that would normally never result in the arrest of a Japanese CEO. The world and Ghosn were caught off guard.

   The plan, according to one source close to the prosecutor’s office, was to detain Ghosn, shake him, interrogate him, and then he would confess to some of the charges, resign, and all problems would be solved.

   Unfortunately for that scenario, Ghosn did not confess. And thus he was suddenly introduced to what many call Japan’s “hostage justice” system, in which a suspect can be held for up to 23 days before even being charged.

2. The only difference in the US is that Obama gave Chrysler to Fiat on a silver platter. Abe saved Nissan from such fate.

3. Even if he and others were not completely innocent, I’m happy to see him stick it to the system. He was never going to receive a fair trial.

4. I think he is an asshole, but as someone who lives in Japan and sees that there I NO justice system here, just threats and abuse by police and judges, holy shit I was happy to see him escape.

5. Ghosn is the reason behind Nissan’s downfall

6. Oh, Jake again isn’t it?

7. I expect Ghosn was abusing company expenses but not particularly more than other CEOs and probably not to a level of criminality – it should have been dealt with in the company, at least initially.

   The way he was arrested and held hostage for a confession was utterly third world – completely out of sync with other corporate cases. I’m glad he escaped in a way that completely humiliated the Japanese justice system. Hard not to root for him.

8. It’s such a pity that so many still take whatever he writes seriously. People are this dumb