Ghosn’s mad dash captivates Japan
Disappearing act trends on social media, with video game in the works
TOKYO— The secret flight from Japan of auto executive Carlos Ghosn has brought a dose of Hollywood drama to the nation’s often predictable criminal justice system, captivating a public used to high profile figures charged with crimes bowing tearfully in televised confessions before eventual conviction.
Television news programs have re-created Mr. Ghosn’s disappearing act by putting presenters into audio equipment boxes similar to that used by the former Nissan Motor Co. chief to slip out of the country. Security experts have been brought in to explain how he avoided detection at each step of his journey.
Mr. Ghosn’s multimillion-dollar dash for his homeland has become one of Japan’s trending social media topics. A videogame called “Ghone is Gone” is in development, in which a thinly-veiled former executive “Loscar Gon” dodges prosecutors, police and former colleagues to sneak out of the country.
“His escape was like a novel. It was so interesting. When I saw the news I thought, this is amazing, people with money really can do anything,” said Masaru Sato, a retired bank employee from Osaka.
Japanese authorities have been just as stunned. For a few days after Mr. Ghosn surfaced in Lebanon on Dec. 30—just before a Japanese year-end holiday period—there was little public reaction from either the government or prosecutors.
By Thursday, their anger and embarrassment was clear. Both Japan’s justice minister and Tokyo prosecutors issued late night rebuttals after Mr. Ghosn slammed his treatment and rejected all the charges against him in Beirut.
“Most of his comments were abstract, unclear or baseless assertions,” Justice Minister Masako Mori said in a press conference. “If defendant Ghosn has anything to say on his criminal case, he should make his argument at a Japanese court and present concrete evidence.”
Tokyo deputy chief prosecutor Takahiro Saito gave a 90minute news conference—four times the usual length—devoted to recounting Mr. Ghosn’s alleged crimes and denouncing his wife. “The defendant Ghosn’s assertions unfairly insult our country’s criminal justice system and are absolutely unacceptable,” Mr. Saito said. In her defense from Mr. Ghosn’s assertions, Ms. Mori noted that Japan’s crime rate is among the lowest in the world—also one reason his escape created such a large shock wave here. Once charged, over 99% of criminal suspects are eventually convicted, many after confessing. Even those who insist on their innocence rarely protest publicly or try to jump bail.
Back in Lebanon, authorities issued a travel ban for Mr. Ghosn, barring him from leaving the country, according to a person familiar with the matter. Earlier Thursday, he appeared in front of a judge to answers questions related to an international arrest request issued by Japan, according to Lebanon’s state-run National
News Agency.
Mr. Ghosn’s file is now with the public prosecutor’s office, who will decide whether to pursue a case in Lebanon. The prosecutor’s office is waiting to receive the details of Mr. Ghosn’s legal proceedings in Japan from Tokyo before making a decision, according to the person familiar with the matter.
In contrast to Mr. Ghosn’s eagerness to make his case to the world, one member of Japan’s parliament who served a year in prison for bribery maintained complete public silence for a quarter-century until last year, when he started giving interviews and wrote a book in which he says he is innocent.
In his Beirut press conference, Mr. Ghosn said he retained affection for Japan and had received support from people on the street in Japan after he was given bail. “They were saying ‘We are sorry about what is happening to you.
We hope you continue to love
Japan’,” he said.
Mr. Ghosn’s highlighting of his solitary confinement and repeated questioning by prosecutors without a lawyer during his months in detention, as well as his claims of a conspiracy against him, had won him a measure of public sympathy in Japan. But his decision to escape has soured some of that goodwill, particularly because he was able to do so on account of his wealth.
“You can’t just flee the country. In Japan we trust each other, and he took advantage of that,” said Mr. Sato, the retired bank worker.
Mr. Ghosn’s claim that he wouldn’t receive a fair trial in Japan hasn’t found many public supporters. Ms. Mori, the justice minister, said that the conviction rate reflects the fact that prosecutors only indict suspects when there is a high likelihood of winning a court case.
“In a nation ruled by law, you have to demonstrate your innocence in court. That was the proper forum,” said Shinya Katanozaka, chief executive of ANA Holdings Inc., Japan’s biggest airline by revenue. Japanese media outlets, meanwhile, were largely dismissive of Ghosn’s Beirut press conference, with some writing that he failed to persuasively argue his innocence. The conference turned into “a stage for dispelling [his] negative image, rather than revealing new facts,” wrote Takashi Kimura, a columnist for Japanese business magazine Toyo Keizai.