Under Carlos Ghosn, Nissan has been aggressively forming overseas joint ventures, locating new plants and R&D outside of Japan, to a degree that threatens to dilute and weaken the Japanese stylistic,

Well most global companies have lost their "local" soul long time ago. If it makes them sell more cars and if it gets people employed who cares.

Interesting comment from Mr. Harner.

It is really debatable whether with only 20% of production in Japan and majority of the executive positions held by foreigners, Nissan is truly a Japanese company, albeit what the Japanese might think. They already have plans to increase their capacity abroad (especially in Mexico) substantially. They have already been quite global but whether this will impact the quality and image of their products any more than it already does, time will tell.

I, for one, believe that Mr. Ghosn's shine has worn off recently after his wrong bet that electric cars would gain market share quickly and his aggressive project 88 targets. I would be very interested to learn who his successor would be. I highly doubt he/she would be Japanese.