The flight of a car-industry megastar shocks Japan

CARLOS GHOSN, a former chairman of Nissan and Renault, would ring in the new year at his luxurious home in Tokyo. Or so Japanese prosecutors thought until two days before the start of the 2020s. News that Mr Ghosn, 65, had other plans came from an unexpected source: a report by the Associated Press quoting Ricardo Karam, a Lebanese television host and friend of Mr Ghosn. He said the megastar executive had skipped bail and fled to Lebanon. In a statement released a day later through a spokeswoman, Mr Ghosn insisted: “I have not fled justice—I have escaped injustice and political persecution.”