Published on January 24, 2020. This article introduces Hiroshi Yuasa’s column from the monthly magazine WiLL and compares Japan’s judicial response to Carlos Ghosn’s escape abroad with the firm stance the United States has historically taken in enforcing the law. Through examples such as the pursuit of the perpetrator in the CIA personnel murder case and the arrest of General Noriega, it argues for the resolve of a law-governed nation to pursue fugitives to the ends of the earth.

January 24, 2020
Even if Japan’s judiciary cannot do anything so reckless, I want it to have the resolve to pursue him to the ends of the earth in accordance with the law.
The following is from Hiroshi Yuasa’s serialized column, published in the monthly magazine WiLL released today under the title, “A Nation That Arrests Fugitives by Military Force.”
Needless to say, WiLL is a monthly magazine that all Japanese citizens must read.
However, there is no meaning unless the essays of its superb commentators are conveyed to the world.
That is why I translate their superb essays into English and send them out to the world.
People of the world, especially when it comes to facts about Japan, judge only after reading my English translations.
A Nation That Arrests Fugitives by Military Force
If this had been America, how would it have settled the matter?
When the year 2020 opened with “Defendant Ghosn Escapes Abroad,” what immediately came to my mind was the image of America settling the matter with its own hands.
In the case of a fugitive abroad, any country would likely ask ICPO, the International Criminal Police Organization, or directly request the Lebanese government to extradite the person.
However, when the other country is hostile or unreliable, America generally takes hard-line measures.
Because Americans are far more particular than Japan about the enforcement of the law, they would surely draw up a plan by reversing Ghosn’s “escape-from-Japan scenario.”
Local CIA, Central Intelligence Agency, personnel would identify Ghosn’s reliable patterns of behavior and guide FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, agents entering the area.
Once the FBI detained Ghosn, they would simply transport him to America on a U.S. military aircraft.
After that, all that would remain would be to have him stand trial under domestic law.
Now, Ghosn’s “escape-from-Japan scenario” began with hiring skilled former U.S. special forces personnel and, like the wealthy man he is, using a private jet.
By the petty means of disguising it as audio equipment, he flew from Kansai Airport to Istanbul, and from there entered Beirut.
The bail money of 1.5 billion yen was small change to Ghosn, so from the beginning it had no effect in deterring his escape.
This news blew away my New Year’s mood in an instant.
Once a defendant on bail has fled, what a state governed by the rule of law must uphold is probably to complete the enforcement of the law calmly and steadily.
That said, Lebanon, where defendant Ghosn fled, is in a state of political turmoil.
Even if Japan seeks extradition through ICPO, it is not even clear whether the government has the capacity to act as a responsible party.
However, the editorial of the Wall Street Journal, an American newspaper friendly to businesspeople, evaluated the press conference Ghosn held in Beirut, his place of refuge, as “a press conference to clear suspicions,” and criticized Japan’s judicial system as being based on the premise that “the defendant is guilty.”
The reason the probability of conviction is high is that Japan’s cautious prosecutors indict only cases they can win.
Rather, the mind of this editorial writer has not changed in the least from the image of the era when Japanese companies were still derided in the 1980s as “Japan Inc.”
It is based on a conspiracy theory that Japanese corporate executives, irritated by the arrogance of a foreign executive inside a Japanese company, cooperated with Nissan executives and Japanese authorities to entrap Ghosn.
To defend a defendant who fled because he could no longer conceal his crimes by means of a conspiracy theory is putting the cart before the horse.
A country that values the “rule of law” places the highest importance on the enforcement of the law.
In fact, America would surely persist in enforcing the law to the very end.
In 1993, on a road near CIA headquarters in Virginia, outside Washington, several employees were killed.
A car carrying employees waiting at a traffic light was shot at by a Pakistani extremist.
The perpetrator then fled to Pakistan.
From there began the CIA’s relentless pursuit.
Before long, they determined that the perpetrator was hiding in Peshawar, a town on the border with Afghanistan.
The FBI, having been contacted, moved in and simply took him to America.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Bhutto at the time criticized America, saying it was a violation of sovereignty, but the perpetrator was already in the FBI’s hands.
Another case was in December 1989, when the U.S. military invaded Panama in order to arrest and take away General Noriega, the “Panamanian wild man,” on suspicion of drug smuggling.
The general had gone into hiding, but in January of the following year he surrendered, was arrested, and stood trial in Florida.
This man was undoubtedly quite a villain.
Once he seized power, he did whatever he pleased.
Not only did he smuggle drugs, he also waved a large sword in front of television cameras and cursed America.
The Bush administration at the time was presented with a “declaration of a state of war” by this Noriega, and when an off-duty U.S. Marine was shot dead, it exceeded the limit of its patience.
That said, Panama too has sovereignty.
Even Noriega, for all his boldness, probably did not think that America would move its military in order to arrest him.
Elizabeth Montgomery of Bewitched and others criticized the move, saying that no matter how bad Panama’s ruler was, was it really proper to send the military to arrest a criminal in another country?
But what America did was justice.
This is why I think that if Ghosn’s escape drama had been an American case, America would never have left it alone.
Even if Japan’s judiciary cannot do anything so reckless, I want it to have the resolve to pursue him to the ends of the earth in accordance with the law.