Japan Scandal Inc.

[Mike Oxlong]

The "legal" system here is so much like China as to be ... bloody well fucked.

[matsuki]

The "legal" system here is so much like China as to be ... bloody well fucked.

Guilty until proven innocent, no attorneys allowed during closed door interrogations, and case by case approach to law....what could go wrong?

Seems like the appeal to the UN might have been scary enough to warrant some action....

After 107 days behind bars, starting with his sudden detention at Tokyo’s Haneda airport when he was accused of engaging in financial misconduct, the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday granted Ghosn bail. The court rejected a last-ditch effort by prosecutors to reverse its decision to release Ghosn on bail, paving the way for him to be released as soon as Wednesday. He is expected to be released once a bond of ¥1 billion is paid.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/ ... H6aaiIzaUk

....and if anyone thinks it's a bit too tinfoil to believe the UN appeal had any effect, it's been reported that French/Japanese governments are involved in the situation. Not likely to happen for the average Francois but this handling of Ghosn is drawing more and more unwanted attention overseas. I'm sure plenty of teeth were sucked when the appeal was made public.

[Grumpy Gramps]

And now that his detention and the "outrage" about it is over, they will likely try to keep a lid on any publicity about the case so that they can let him go quietly eventually. Wonder, if that will work.

[matsuki]

And now that his detention and the "outrage" about it is over, they will likely try to keep a lid on any publicity about the case so that they can let him go quietly eventually. Wonder, if that will work.

Totally possible scenario. Like Mike noted, it's some China-level "justice" where you disappear and the media is fed only the info the police and prosecutors want while you're essentially silenced and jailed indefinitely while you have the foot of the law on the back of your head, pressuring you to confess. If the case is high profile enough, you're convicted in the court of public opinion before there is even a decision about charging you.

If anything, this case will further expose this shit setup to the rest of the world. I'm particularly interesting on the statute of limitations issue where the prosecutors are claiming time outside Japan doesn't count and how that flies with the foreign press

[Mike Oxlong]

Yeah, did you see the circus of his release? Got him all dolled up like he's Al Capone and Hannibal Lector's lovechild.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/201903 ... 91000.html

[matsuki]

Yeah, did you see the circus of his release? Got him all dolled up like he's Al Capone and Hannibal Lector's lovechild.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/201903 ... 91000.html

WTF was that? Surgical masks on everyone, he looked like a parking lot KB and then was carted way in what looked like an unmarked maintenance kei-van?

[Taro Toporific]

Behind the fcuking The Financial Times paywall*, there seems to be the rest-of-the-story about the Ghosn "kidnapping."

from a Peter McGILL† post on japanforum.nbr.org

The Financial Times has published a revealing article about Japanese government backing for Nissan in resisting Carlos Ghosn’s plan to merge with Renault. Nissan had “solid support” of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide, the paper quotes unidentified people with ‘knowledge of the discussions’ as asserting.
‘Even as they were briefing Mr Ghosn on the Japanese government’s stance, his lieutenants were simultaneously mounting the secret investigation that would lead to his downfall,’ according to the FT. Information in the report came from ‘documents seen by the Financial Times, as well as through interviews with officials in Paris and Tokyo and people close to both Nissan’s top management and Mr Ghosn,’ the former chief executive of Renault and chairman of Nissan who has been languishing in Japanese jail since late last year.
Renault owns 43 per cent of Nissan, while the French state has 15 per cent of Renault, with double voting rights.
In early April 2018, a ‘senior official’ of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) sent a letter to his French counterpart ‘expressing concern about media reports on plans for a full merger’ of the two carmakers. ‘Mr Ghosn demanded to know what Meti hoped to achieve with its intervention. Hitoshi Kawaguchi, Nissan’s executive in charge of government relations, disclosed that the company had asked Meti for support “to put a brake on the French state”, according to the FT.
Senior executives at Nissan feared a full merger could lead to plant closures and job losses, the paper said.

*Link to the Financial Times story is: dropbox...Financial-Times_pdf

†Peter McGill is a former Tokyo correspondent of
The Observer & former president of the FCCJ.

[matsuki]

That's some more China-level bullshit. Make Japan Ganbare again? Keep Japan Japanese? Isn't SHARP owned by a Taiwanese company now?

[Grumpy Gramps]

Renault is still the owner of Nissan. In that respect, nothing has changed. If your dog bites you, you're still the master and he is the dog.

[matsuki]

Renault is still the owner of Nissan. In that respect, nothing has changed. If your dog bites you, you're still the master and he is the dog.

That's why I think the J-side narrative is soo silly. Nissan went to shit, Frenchie comes in and lays the smack down with this international effort, now that Nissan is doing better then le Francais, they feel it's unfair they aren't equal partners and are setting themselves on fire to prevent more integration.

[matsuki]

A non-Japanese Nissan executive close to Ghosn and a former chief of the automaker’s secretaries’ office, who is Japanese, started providing information about Ghosn’s alleged wrongdoing during the in-house investigation.

During the internal probe, the executives hinted at their involvement in Ghosn’s alleged underreporting of his executive pay and fraudulent purchases of overseas real estate using company funds.

The executives told in-house investigators that they would disclose further details to the prosecutors if they could secure a plea deal, the sources said.

In plea negotiations, the prosecutors agreed not to indict the executives in exchange for their cooperation in the investigation.

Ghosn was released on bail on Wednesday after 108 days in detention. He was indicted for the underreporting of his income.

The sources said the plea deals also covered Ghosn’s allegedly fraudulent purchases of overseas real estate. But the prosecutors have yet to make a case against the matter due to a lack of evidence, they said.

this is more and more looking like a case of throwing shit at the wall and desperately hoping something sticks.

[Thanatos' embalmed botfly]

Dipshit Guardian

bail set at $1bn (£760m)

It's 1 billion YEN you fuckheads, not dollars.

1 billion yen = 9 million dollars not fucken 760 million pounds. Jesus. 1 billion dollars bail, imagine that. That's about 10 billion times more than what he was accused of nicking in the first place...

[Taro Toporific]

And beyond the boardroom, lawyers could take on the courtroom by arguing that Ghosn’s monthslong detention is arbitrary, Muraoka said. “The world needs to know that our criminal justice system is unfair.”

endless-crap-japan.gif

In an Odd Plot Twist, Former Nissan Chair Carlos Ghosn Could Be Re-Arrested
BLOOMBERG 2019-April-03 | 5:23 AM EDT
In another bizarre plot twist in Carlos Ghosn’s long-running legal troubles, the former Nissan Motor Co. chairman may be re-arrested on fresh charges just as he was preparing to tell his side of the story.
The drama surrounding the former auto czar reignited on Wednesday when he tweeted that he’s planning to hold a news conference on April 11 to “tell the truth” about accusations against him for alleged financial crimes. Soon after, the Sankei newspaper reported that Ghosn would be re-arrested by prosecutors in Tokyo on a new charge of breach of trust.
Ghosn, who’s been free on bail for almost a month, tweeted from a newly created and verified Twitter account without specifying a time or place.
More/endless...

Japan-Fucking-endless.jpg

http://www.mlit.go.jp/kankocho/about/jed_logo.html

[Mike Oxlong]

Dude needs to cut his losses and GTFO.

[Grumpy Gramps]

I also thought that it is not a very wise move to want to "tell the truth", while he is still at the mercy of his enemies, who he should know well enough by now. Sure, a fighter wants to fight and he seems to be a fighter, but sometimes it is just wiser to stfu and disperse quietly into thin air whenever possible. You can always hit back from afar later on.

[Mike Oxlong]

Exactly.

[Grumpy Gramps]

And back to the dungeon he goes.

[matsuki]

I'm wondering if it was intentional? Either way, it's making the Japanese justice system look more bizzare than ever and makes it looks like they are "silencing him."

[canman]

Now that he has been re-arrested does he get his bail money back? And what it up with confiscating his wife's passport and cellphone? She hasn't been charged with anything, if I were her I'd be lawyering up right about now.

[matsuki]

Now that he has been re-arrested does he get his bail money back?

When they know they can't get him to talk, it's just to fuck with him...

"Why arrest me except to try to break me? I will not be broken."

No idea how bail works here but I'm wondering if he will be released from detention again or stay their til they drop the charges or litigation.

And what it up with confiscating his wife's passport and cellphone? She hasn't been charged with anything, if I were her I'd be lawyering up right about now.

My guess with the cell phone is to see if hubby had been using it or mine it for evidence but seems like another stab in the dark to get something on him.

Confiscating her passport is an unspoken statement of suspicion she committed a crime. Not sure what they plan to do but if she gets put in detention, things are going to get uglier.

[Mike Oxlong]

'I have names': Ghosn vows to clear his name in Japan trial
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/i- ... ar-BBVD3L5

[matsuki]

Japanese prosecutors ask judges to question Ghosn's wife: NHK
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-niss ... SKCN1RJ00P

The wife of former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn has left Japan and flown to Paris to appeal to the French government to do more to help him.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-niss ... SKCN1RJ017

The FT said prosecutors had confiscated his wife’s Lebanese passport in a dawn raid on their apartment in central Tokyo on Thursday morning, but did not discover her U.S. passport.

“I’m all alone here. It’s traumatising what happened,” she was quoted as saying while awaiting her flight.

[Grumpy Gramps]

The perks of dual nationality. J-prosecuters would never think of that

[matsuki]

The perks of dual nationality. J-prosecuters would never think of that

Close minded and inexperienced are our knee jerk reactions but more likely, if they had taken the US passport, it might have dragged the US into this mess...


Without jumping into the discussion, the jijis at the local coffee shops are giving this a "of course she should be arrested to!"

The way I see it, the more info that comes out, the more it seems like this should be a Nissan vs. Ghosn civil case rather than Japan vs. Ghosn criminal case.

[canman]

NHK is working overtime in its reporting to make Ghosn and his wife look like criminals and highly involved in racketeering! There is no way that he will ever get a fair trial here. I must admit, the more info that comes out the more he looks guilty, but I think I am the same as everyone else being swayed by the stream of one way information, with nothing to counter it. Almost the opposite of the case against IOC member but in reverse. We only hear his side that it was not a bribe and he thought he was paying for consulting. But there is so much more to this story we aren't being told.

[Taro Toporific]

"..message I want to send to you is, I love Japan and I love Nissan.
Nobody spends 20 years in a country---Nobody works 20 year years in a company without love and attachment..."

Tokyo Newspaper Channel
Published on Apr 8, 2019
On April 9, a defense team released a video that Nissan's former Chairman Gone claimed to be innocent. It is a video shot before re-arrest.

[Grumpy Gramps]

Sounds like a weeb. Maybe he let his guard down a little too much because of that?

[matsuki]

There is no way that he will ever get a fair trial here

Nobody gets a fair trial in Japan. The prosecutors get to cherry pick what evidence is used and unlike other countries with some reason in the legal system, they are not required to disclose exculpatory evidence. This basically means they can find evidence that shows the person they are prosecuting is innocent and withhold it. Numerous cases where the lack of this requirement has let the prosecutors to convict innocent people. Some prosecutors have even gone as far as to manufacture false evidence to get that conviction.

Remember boys and girls, it's not about truth and justice, it's about the prosecutors conviction rate and saving face.

[Grumpy Gramps]

And also not to forget what kind of people choose to become prosecuters. Sado-/psycho-/sociopaths are more likely than Mother Teresas imo.

[matsuki]

And also not to forget what kind of people choose to become prosecuters. Sado-/psycho-/sociopaths are more likely than Mother Teresas imo.

I recently heard an interview with a prosecutor from the 'merican deep south with a really balanced take. He was pointing out that in civil cases, parties are not required to disclose exculpatory evidence as prosecutors are in criminal cases. (Japan is missing this requirement) He reasoned the fact that it's a requirement leaves no gray area regarding the purpose of a prosecutor, to seek truth/justice, not to win at all costs. With this in mind, he had dropped the charges on a few occasions rather than proceeding with a trial of someone he thought was likely innocent. He said his performance should be judged by adhesion to seeking justice, not how many convictions he got or the percentage. He said he knew of prosecutors who bragged about never losing a case and in his opinion, that meant they never took on a challenging case. (sound familiar?) I'm sure the US has plenty of shithead prosecutors but keeping up that 99% (or whatever it is now) conviction rate only makes sense if a.) only the solid cases go to trial and b.) the prosecutors are required to present exculpatory evidence to the defense. (Japan gets bonus points for a history or fucked up prosecutors who fabricated evidence and too much reliance on confessions)