"They" are coming for CEOs!
First they came for Ghosn...
Then they came for Meng...
Then they came for...?
In the last few weeks, we see Company CEOs and CFOs suddenly arrested in what appear to moves of capricious, corporatist nationalism.
In the case of Carlos Ghosn, it was clearly a coup by Nissan's Japanese management--fearful that their company, a Japanese corporate icon, might go French, absorbed by Renault who own a substantial chunk of it--43%. A very Japanese sneak attack, which took place in a corporate jet with lights and cameras--"staging" writ large. There was a Nissan commercial right afterwards on one channel.
In the case of Meng, CFO of Huawei, it was fear that America would lose out to the Chinese in the new 5G market. Huawei has just announced new products such as phones with foldable screens that threaten to take the market by storm. Can't have that. The "free market" anyone?
Was Ghosn overpaid? Of course he was -- as most foreign CEOs are. When has that mattered? And he didn't exactly hide his pay package. Did he break the law? Technically: most likely not. Although the law can be bent to do the bidding of those in power, as we see in the US all the time.
But legality or illegality weren't considerations. This is not law--but lawfare--the use of law to coerce or damage an opponent, a form of violence.
Given the transgressions of Olympus (more than 35 deaths) , Takata (more than 20), and our favorite TEPCO (573 deaths) -- it is is obvious that the prosecutors were not concerned with justice or the public good. Ghosn didn't kill anyone. But the executives of the companies just mentioned did. And they are still happy, happy rich people free to kill more if they want.
Can we hope they will be charged with felony manslaughter when they go abroad? Maybe now.
Not that I have much sympathy for Carlos Ghosn. He's a lot richer than I am. So a month or so in jail for him is enjoyable schadenfreude for me, as I sit in front of the TV, with my yellow vest yelling "aux barricades", cuddling my photo of Che'.
I can relax and enjoy my beer and imagine Mark Zuckerberg in a Chinese Labour camp or Bill Gates in the Russian Gulag. The unwritten rule that you can't put really rich people in jail seems to have been broken.
OK. Russian jails are arguably better than Japanese ones. And the Russian and Chinese legal systems are probably fairer than their Japanese or American counterparts, thanks to recent reforms. Still..I will hate anyone who WaPo tells me to hate. And where are my munchies to go with the beer.? I digress.
In the case of Meng, her company is said to have violated US sanctions against Iran. Legally, Canada should have refused the extradition request on those grounds alone. But we all know that Trudeau is Trump's bitch.
Article 2 of the Treaty requires that Canada can only act on such a request if, and only if, the offence alleged is also an offence by the laws of both contracting parties. But the unilaterally imposed and illegal sanctions placed against Iran by the USA, are not punishable acts in Canada and even in the USA the “sanctions” are illegal as the are in violation of the UN Charter.
Article 4 (1) of the Treaty states:
“Extradition shall not be granted in any of the following circumstances:
(iii) When the offense in respect of which extradition is requested is of a political character, or the person whose extradition is requested proves that the extradition request has been made for the purpose of trying to punish him (or her) for an offense of the above-mentioned character. If any question arises as to whether a case comes within the provisions of this subparagraph, the authorities of the Government on which the requisition is made shall decide.”
So much for the rule of law in Canada. But when did that matter?
In Ghosn's case, we really don't know a lot, other than that now, after 23 days forced to eat rice ("rice-boarding"?), he has been charged with financial misconduct, which is sort of like groping the Annual Report with intent to defile. And he has been recharged which means more rice balls. Torture, Japanese style.
The Japanese news seems to come mostly from NHK which doesn't really identify its sources and is basically reporting propaganda and rumour like tabloid rags are supposed to-- except that , in most cases, Japan tabloids are where you get real news
NHK says there is "whistleblower" but they won't tell who it is. Again, those of us in the media know that "whistleblower" is a loaded term, implying a truth teller.The fact that NHK uses this term tells us they are slanting the story. Proof of bias.
Real truth tellers end up like Julian Assange or Edward Snowden. Real whistleblowers do what they do out of principle not for reward. And they disclose their identities. In this case, onlyExecutive Vice President Hideyuki Sakamoto and Director Toshiyuki Shiga could have access to the kind of information that prosecutors would pay attention to. Cui Bono? Guess who got promoted? Et tu Brutus.
NHK thy name is Fake News? LOL . Like the BBC these days, rightwing propaganda.
Let's just recap events
Nissan executives, fearful of Nissan going Frenchy and jealous of Ghosn approach the Japanese prosecutors with accusations. They simultaneously leak details to NHK who leaks it to a few other media, including Asahi Shimbun and set up a media event on board Ghosn's corporate jet. Now if some humble, accounting clerk "leaked" to the prosecutors, they would file the leak under sexual harrassment claims and forget it. But Sakamoto and Shiga are plugged into Japan Inc. They put the prosecutors in the position of not being able to refuse the case. Plus the leak to NHK.
Legally speaking, there is no case at trial if Ghosn contests it and if the judges follow the law.
But legality doesn't ordinarily matter that much in Japan; forced confessions do. Which is why they have a 99.9% conviction rate. On the other hand, judges hate "not guilty" pleas, which mean a lot of court time forcing them to pretend to be awake.
The prosecutors are used to everyone giving in, guilty or not. In this case, if they didn't prosecute, the media could accuse them of giving foreigners a free pass because, well, we are all Mexicans here, drug dealers and rapists, except when we are cutting the corporate grass.
You will notice that if a foreigner breaks the rules in Japan they are punished doubly or trebly.
Add to this: the prosecutors are a conservative bunch. Vive Le Japon Libre!
Of course, Nissan doesn't really want to punish Ghosn for his wedding in Versaille, although that no doubt riled Sakamoto and Shiga. Just they wanted Ghosn out--and themselves in.
That is: Nissan sans Ghosn sans Renault.
Meaning: Renault, which owns 43% of Nissan, backs off from merger; Nissan becomes independent--preferably without Nissan having to pay off the French or at least buy them out on favorable terms. That's where Ghosn comes in: "You STOLE from us". Business as the game of of Go.
Or maybe the Japanese version of Trump's Art of the Deal.
Naturally, the best case for both the Prosecutors is an admission of wrongdoing on Ghosn's part (therefore Renault) in which case they can give Ghosn a slap on the wrist and see him out of the country, without the embarrassment of a trial, and get on with a compromise agreement.
Now if Ghosn was Japanese he would give in after two weeks of isolation and constant badgering from the persecutors, er...prosecutors. Complete surrender is also a Japanese thing, noticed in WWII, with Kamikaze pilots who survived and the became the most docile, pro-American POWs ever--as long as they were separate from other Japanese--or their mates had accepted 'surrender'. When Japanese surrender, they do so utterly.
Japanese have little sense of personal autonomy. Rather, they tend to look to the "mawari" -- those around them -- for direction. In jail, the "mawari" are the jailers, of course. The Japanese "justice" system routinely exploits Japanese social and psychological immaturity so black is white or green or red or whatever the prosecutors want.
Ghosn is NOT Japanese, just in case you haven't noticed. So, after 23 days, the Persecutors have zilch. Do they even have someone who speaks his language? Maybe. But speaking the language and using it persuasively are two different things. I doubt their interrogations are any more effective than: "Ve haf vays to make you talk, hahaha" And brandishing a whip. We all saw that movie. But the hero always wins.
But Renault is not in jail. Will it cave? As long as Renault doesn't, Ghosn is unlikely to. If Renault falters, then Ghosn might "confess", get out of jail, hoping to get out of Japan and then retract his confession as "coerced" (which it would be) or keep quiet if Nissan offered him a really, really good behind the scenes deal-- which are unlikely scenarios.
The Japanese have re-charged Ghosn, so they haven't gotten what they wanted. If that doesn't work, they might keep him interned as a "flight risk". So there is little incentive for his confessing.
But abusing Ghosn like this--and generally accepted principles of fairness -- is not good for the Japanese. The longer this goes on the worse it looks and the greater the chance of significant blowback.
So much for "Cool Japan" unless you think "arbitrary arrest and denial of human rights is cool.
Internationally, foreign companies will be wary of ANY kind of deals with the Japanese.
Yes, you say, but the prosecutors have also charged Nissan itself!
Charging Nissan is tacit acceptance of the fact that Ghosn ran his payment package by Nissan's board and financial people and they accepted it. They are the ones who are supposed to be familiar with Japanese law.
What this means inevitably is that if Nissan is guilty, then it is responsible and Ghosn is not--unless the prosecutors can prove that Ghosn somehow forced the people at Nissan to go along with his ideas.
Forced? Death threats maybe.
Why would be the Persecutors do this? To do it, they need cooperation from Nissan itself.
All is not what it seems.
The charges against Nissan are the prosecutors' way of looking "fair". But they are not really serious about it. If they were you would see Sakimoto and Shiga in the cells next to Ghosn.
This is a sneaky move.
Ultimately, the prosecutors charging Nissan is Nissan's "get out jail" card. Since, as we have seen, it is not the Japanese way for the authorities to go after Japanese company execs, even when they kill people.
Sakimoto and his cronies at Nissan will be exonerated and the blame will fall on Ghosn and Renault. The will be portrayed as powerless to stop the corruption--which is why they need Nissan to be independent. But they will apologize and say they are sorry to the Japanese people and promise to do better (not that they have higher positions and a pay hike).
At least. that is probably the plan at this point.
Ghosn is a hostage.
This is similar to the American strategy with Meng, who is now a hostage for the Chinese backing off from the 5G market.
Lawfare. As I said.
Call it shima guni conjo or nihonjinron or just cultural blindness, the Japanese forget their own history easily, while following the same pattern.
For example, sneak attacks.
Sneak attack worked really well at Port Arthur. It was a night attack and the Japanese were quite proud of shooting the Russians in the back as you can see from the print. They won the subsequent war handily. But there is always blowback. Those four islands off Hokkaido, for example. History is a bitch.
Nor are the Chinese willing to forgive and forget the Marco Polo Bridge Incident.
The Americans can forgive and forget Pearl Harbour as long as the Japanese do as they are told.
The French are not going to be forgiving and Europe in general will succumb to distrust.
A long standing stereotype of the Japanese is that they are "sneaky".
Why re-awaken such nastiness? Is it that Japanese really are short-sighted?
A good strategy for Nissan would be to get the prosecutors to let Ghosn out, tell NHK to forget the story, and let the news cycle to move on to the next scandal involving a Girl Band. They can keep Ghosn in Japan (in luxury) and "negotiate". After the hullabaloo dies down they can talk about dollar and cents or euros with the French.
As it stands, doubling down on Ghosn doesn't provide them with an easy way out.
But, at least we now have a precedent for the future! That's the good news!
They came for Carlos Ghosn.
Then they came for Meng.
Then they came for Elton Musk.
And Mark Zuckerberg.
And Bill Gates.
And....
Dare we hope?
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