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The Empire fought back. Japan Inc and Nissan Motor last week opposed the French government, car manufacturers Renault and Carlos Ghosn.
According to Nissan's speech and apparently presumed Japanese authorities, the former senior Alliance official Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi Motor abused its position to enrich it.
The truth seems to be a little different and it seems certain that "The Ghosn Affair" will be unveiled. It threatens to damage at least as much the reputation of the government and the industrial alliance known as Japan Inc. that the man at the center of the case.
It has been said that Ghosn became a national hero in Japan before falling out of favor. But it's almost impossible. No one can really be a hero in Japan unless they are of Japanese origin and, as the Japanese say, "the nail that stands will break."
Ghosn is of Lebanese, French and Brazilian origin, of the kind of exotic mixture that sometimes produces remarkable people. In Japan, it is above all a Gaijin (foreign) and the Japanese business world is not comfortable that strangers then show how to do things.
Worse, according to what former Deputy Finance Minister Eisuke Sakakibara described as "xenophobic" in Japan, Ghosn not only ruled the Nissan alliance, but Renault (which he remains president) continues to call the partnership.
Ghosn's loyalty to the French company in favor of a full Renault-Nissan merger seems to have been the cause of its downfall rather than the allegation of overpayment.
The ousting of Ghosn, 64, was touted as a talented but flamboyant and greedy business executive, who saved the second Japanese automaker from collapse in 1999, and then used his reputation later as a magician of corporate recovery. .
According to this view, Japan – where Prime Minister Shinzo Abe now has zero tolerance for corporate bribery – had no choice but to get rid of Ghosn.
It does not matter if Ghosn's disappearance is brutal and nasty. He was arrested and jailed in a detention center while his former protégé, Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa, one of Nissan's former guards, a member of the company for 40 years, expressed his "indignation and desperation". facing the behavior of Ghosn.
Ghosn had to act for the greater good of Japan Inc. But the way the Nissan executives rushed to judge their former savior seems staged. Some see in Ghosn Julius Caesar and Saikawa in the role of Brutus, one of his killers.
In some ways, Ghosn was still a newcomer in a conservative Japanese business environment while he was there for 20 years.
"Part of what is happening, is that the former Japan retaliates and regains control of Nissan," said former Goldman Sachs Asia vice president, Kenneth Courtis.
Or, as an analyst told him at the Japan Times"It sounds like a coup d'etat, orchestrated by insiders who are against it," Ghosn executives and Nissan representative director Greg Kelly, who worked with Ghosn and is accused of having helped his under-reporting salary and other benefits.
Seven years ago, another prominent Japanese company, camera maker Olympus Corporation, made headlines after firing its UK CEO Michael Woodford, his first foreign CEO and one of the rare foreigners to occupy such prestigious positions.
Woodford was ousted just two weeks after his appointment for serving as a whistleblower for alleged financial fraud at Olympus by some of his senior executives. In the Olympus case, a stranger was the whistleblower, but the table has now turned and a whistleblower at Nissan has shouted scandal against Ghosn.
Commercial scandals are not unique to Japan, but the Nissan attack seems particularly savage. Since the alleged acts were committed over a number of years, some have wondered where Nissan's auditors and independent directors were, and why they did not speak earlier.
It's not just that Gaijin has made the law at Nissan and made the Nissan-Renault Mitsubishi alliance the largest car manufacturer in the world. This is also the dominant role played by the interests of foreign companies.
Renault holds a 43% stake in Nissan, while Nissan – which can rightly claim to be the main partner in automotive technology and production skills – holds only 15% of Renault's capital. Renault, part of the French government, has all the voting rights of Nissan.
This has long been a thorn in the back of some at Nissan and beyond. They lobbied for the balance of power to be changed in favor of Japan and the Japanese government supported this idea.
But the French government has resisted, while promising not to interfere in the governance of Nissan.
Ghosn persuaded his Nissan colleagues to accept the status quo and even spoke of a complete merger with Renault.
That seems to be more than Nissan could handle – an enclave of foreign companies on Japanese soil with a Gaijin corporate hero at his head.
Ghosn had to leave, and since he was probably not going to abandon his baby, other means had to be found. This goal has now been achieved, but it is far from clear who will be the big winner – or the loser – of the debacle.
Some say the alliance will survive and Nissan's board has expressed some hope for the outcome. It makes business sense to preserve the alliance, especially when size is paramount. But preserving the status quo could result in a total loss of face.
This would probably imply a decline of Renault and a reduction of its stake in Nissan, leaving the company under Japanese control and presided over by a Japanese. Now that the French government seems to be uniting alongside Renault, it is even harder to imagine such a result.
Nissan-Mitsubishi could attract other partners. If Toyota – the largest automaker in Japan, headed by a descendant of the Japanese founder – was to join Nissan-Mitsibishi, Japan would have a real national champion.
Even an agreement with a US automaker could be a way to buy Donald Trump, who is determined that US automakers will win in the Japanese market.
Alternative foreign partners for Nissan-Mitsubishi would mean maintaining Gaijin influence.
But if this objective could be reached at arm's length from Renault's rapprochement, agreed upon at the time of the impending bankruptcy, it might be acceptable even for the former guard, who still seems to have control in Japanese companies.
Anthony Rowley is a veteran journalist specializing in economic and financial affairs in Asia.
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