Thread by @Noahpinion

Today's @bopinion post is about something Japan desperately needs: the RULE OF LAW.
bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

The arrest of Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn looks very fishy. Possibly a corporate coup. But it's Japan's broken justice system that makes that possible.
bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

Japan allows police to jail and interrogate a suspect - without a lawyer present, and usually without any recording of the interrogation - for an extremely long period of time.

Obviously, this results in a lot of forced confessions.

Some people think Ghosn's arrest is evidence of Japanese xenophobia and anti-foreign bias, but the truth is, Japan does this to native-born Japanese executives all the time.

Now obviously, some executives ARE guilty of fraud and other crimes!!

But some are not. And even when they're not, their lives tend to be destroyed by trumped-up accusations.

"Oh, boo-hoo, corporate executives going to jail, who cares?", you might say.

But realize that most of the people the Japanese justice system screws over are just regular working-class folks.

Anyway, Japan needs RULE OF LAW in order to grow its economy and the prosperity of its people.

The first reason is that rule of law makes it a lot easier for managers to make decisions that step on other managers' toes.

Second, rule of law encourages entrepreneurship - something Japan needs a lot more of.

And third, rule of law would make more people actually want to live and work in Japan.

Japan's leaders know their country needs rule of law. They have taken a few steps toward improving it. But much more is needed.

Step 1 in creating better rule of law is to get rid of the interrogation system.

If Japan wants to continue to be a top-rank industrial power, it MUST provide rule of law. There's no other system that works.

(end)