Japan Must Overhaul Bail System After Ghosn, Ex-Minister Says

(Bloomberg) -- Japan should introduce a more relaxed bail system but step up its surveillance of defendants in criminal cases to prevent a repetition of the dramatic escape by fallen auto titan Carlos Ghosn, a former Japanese cabinet minister said Tuesday.

Despite bail conditions intended to restrict his movements ahead of a trial for alleged financial misconduct, Ghosn took a bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka, where he fled the country aboard a private jet last month, Bloomberg and other media reporting has shown.

“When considering bail, the prosecutors and courts only think about destruction of evidence,” Yoichi Masuzoe said by phone. “They didn’t think about Ghosn escaping. That was their biggest mistake.”

The bail conditions -- including barring Ghosn from talking to his wife without permission -- were inhumane, according to Masuzoe, who said he had met the former Nissan and Renault chief several times. Japan should ease bail rules in line with Western norms and introduce GPS tracking or other systems to monitor suspects ahead of trial, he said.

“To put it simply, the bail system should be made much more relaxed and humane, but surveillance should be much stricter. I am concerned, though, that people will push to have the bail system made harsher after this kind of incident,” the former health minister and governor of Tokyo said.

Airport Checks

Japan’s Transport Minister Kazuyoshi Akaba told reporters that major airports would now check large cases, following reports that Ghosn boarded the plane hidden inside a box intended for transporting audio equipment.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said in a television interview Monday night that Japan would do what was necessary, after establishing the facts, to prevent such an incident from occurring in the future.

Masuzoe said he thinks that Lebanese diplomats or government officials must have been involved in the planning of Ghosn’s flight in some capacity. His tweets on the topic prompted the Lebanese ambassador to issue a denial, according to Arab News.

Masuzoe, who resigned as governor after allegations he had misused public funds, added that he didn’t see a possibility of Lebanon returning Ghosn for trial. Japan has issued an international request for his arrest via Interpol.

To contact the reporter on this story: Isabel Reynolds in Tokyo at ireynolds1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Jodi Schneider, Jon Herskovitz

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