JenniSchiebel comments

Disillusioned Today  08:56 am JST

any foreigner that finds himself or herself on the wrong side of Japanese law can forget about any chance of gaining bail

Hopefully that's not going to be the case.

Surely the Japanese authorities would realize that the typical foreigner doesn't have the financial resources to arrange the sort of elaborate (and expensive) escape that Ghosn arranged.

Then again, maybe not.

kwattJan. 2  10:51 pm JST

Ghosn has a spare French passport. Why did not he go to France?

One reason, I guess, is that he's hugely popular in Lebanon. Also, he perhaps has more friends and relatives there.

How he entered Lebanon without official passport?

He did have an official passport -- a French one. People enter countries with other countries' passports all the time. Nothing remarkable about it.

Maybe he also has a spare Lebanese passport.

Maybe, but probably not. And if he did, he didn't use it to enter Lebanon; he used his spare French one.

As a citizen of Lebanon, I'm sure he can now easily obtain a replacement passport from that country.

kwattToday  09:40 am JST

No doubt Ghosn used fake passport to enter Lebanon because his lawyer still keeps all his real official passports in Japan. Another passport means "fake". I heard the passport's name is not written Carlos Ghosn.

News updates say he had a second French passport that was valid, which was to be kept locked in a lock box.

It's good to wait for news updates rather than leap to "no doubt" conclusions.

MrHeiseiJan. 1  10:30 pm JST

We now know how justified his bail conditions were, especially the banning of communication with his wife (who I assume was behind planning all of this).

It is really ridiculous that the goods leaving his house were not thoroughly checked and the company and individuals that arranged it should also be suitably punished.

I would truly love to see both Carlos & wife back in Japan and wearing handcuffs - they are making a mockery of Japan.

He is now a criminal, a liar and a fugitive - the press should not give him any air time.

I for one am not thrilled that he escaped. I'm in no way celebrating this.

But let's take stock:

a) He was lured to Japan under false pretenses of an "important meeting" that was probably never intended to be held.

b) He was interrogated for several hours a day without a lawyer present.

c) He was not allowed to consult with his own lawyers for more than just a short time each day, if even that.

d) He was charged with one crime, let out on bail, then re-arrested on a fresh charge and had to go through the whole sit-in-jail-and-get-bailed-out thing.

e) Upon his second release on bail, he wasn't allowed to contact his wife -- an appallingly inhumane prohibition.

f) His wife had police raiding her residence and seizing her passports (though, fortunately for her, they missed one) ... even though she had not been arrested or charged with any crime.

g) The prosecution refused to hand over evidence to his lawyer, which in any other normal civilized country would be par for the course. People are supposed to have a right to face their accusers -- and that doesn't just include human accusers, but also evidence that must be disclosed to the defense prior to trial.

So, again, I'm not thrilled that he fled. But given all the above, on a certain level I can't blame him either.

Educator60Today  12:27 pm JST

Have you forgotten when Carlos was re-arrested and taken from their residence, and the police confiscated some of her passports but she skipped the country using one she hid from them, her American if I recall correctly.

She was not under arrest and she had not been charged with any crime. So under what authority did the police confiscate her passports?

That the police can just willy-nilly seize people's passports when they haven't been arrested or charged with a crime should disturb everyone.

John S. WhitfordToday  07:23 am JST

I look forward to seeing his name on an Interpol red notice soon. He won't be able to travel outside of Lebanon ever.

Yes he will, as long as he avoids South Korea and the U.S.A. Those are the only two countries with which Japan has an extradition treaty for the type of crimes he's accused of.

RecklessToday  05:01 pm JST

I am curious if whether Lebanon made him a diplomat he could travel freely, even to Japan, under diplomatic immunity. 

Probably not. I would think that immunity would not apply to alleged crimes prior to becoming a diplomat.

The anti-Ghosn "activists" quoted in this article are a professor, a filmmaker, and a musician. That's says it all.

I don't do "buzzwords." Too copycatty and conformist.

When did it become "cool" to do all the same things -- like say the same words, wear "hipster" glasses, grow big bushy beards, get tattoos, and so on -- as everyone else?

Being "cool" used to mean being different, an individualist. Now it seems to mean just being a copycatting drone.

It's known as a fact that he raped a 13-year-old girl, and has probably sexually assaulted other girls and women. But Hollywood loves him, which is why I never again want to hear them virtue-signal about how much they care about women.

How can you be driving and not notice that EVERYONE else is going in the opposite direction, swerving to avoid you and waving or honking their horns at you?

Dementia, perhaps.

A survey wasn't needed to determine this

Not to determine it, but to confirm it and to provide scientific evidence for it.

Even when it comes to things that "everybody knows," studies still need to be done.

Otherwise, there would be no evidence when we're asked, "Where is the evidence of that?"

Such studies provide that evidence.

Meaningless virtue-signaling. They're still going to play music using instruments that are petroleum-based products. And they're still going to record that music on electronic equipment that is also petroleum-based, and that emits energy into the atmosphere.

This idea that we can destroy the earth just by living like civilized human beings is ridiculous. These enviro-alarmists have been so entirely sucked in by emotion and political ideology that they can't think logically.

Everything that Trump does angers Democrats. Trump's very existence angers Democrats. I've never seen a bigger bunch of easily-triggered crybabies in my life.

It is impossible to act on homosexual feelings within a marriage. The second sentence there is a contradiction.

From a Catholic moral standpoint, that is -- which is really the only standpoint being discussed here. Just to clarify.

Hopefully he will also evangelize, inviting people in Thailand and Japan to accept Jesus Christ and receive baptism into His Church.

In fact, that should be his primary reason for traveling anywhere -- yes, even more important than the issue of nuclear weapons, as important as that is.

All sorts of things can be hijacked by people who falsely use them to advance their cause. That doesn't mean that the things themselves are to blame.

Do the hustle Today  04:28 pm JST

One of my foreign friends was sentenced to 8 months in prison for having less than a gram of pot on him. His visa was cancelled by the company he worked for and he was forced to leave Japan. This was his first and only offense This joker gets arrested five times for possession of ‘heavy’ drugs and has done very little jail time at all. Japan definitely is a land of contrasts.

I wouldn't say that he "has done very little jail time at all." He has been imprisoned twice, for a total of six years.

The 1964 Games in Tokyo were held from Oct. 10 to Oct. 24 -- precisely to avoid the midsummer heat & humidity, plus to avoid the typhoon season.

Why on earth didn't they schedule the 2020 Games for October as well???

"'Too sunburned' lol that's wild," Osaka wrote on Twitter. "I never get sunburned" by using a sunscreen, she added -- naming a local brand.

I read that the brand is made by one of her corporate sponsors. It's great that she turned it into a humorous opportunity to sell herself and her sponsor's product!

And that's how you handle some comedian's tasteless joke -- you don't whine and moan about it.

I've heard my ethnicity "slapped around" quite a few times. Like Naomi, I don't cry over it.

NorthernlifeToday  08:34 am JST

Pompeo with zero evidence geez the Trump administration are trying their hardest to beat that drum....

Offering evidence at this point could compromise classified information, as well as secret operations and the intelligence agents carrying them out.

So, let's not leap to the conclusion that just because they're not offering evidence, it must automatically mean that they're fabricating things.

Chip StarToday  08:21 am JST

I agree that Iran should not engage the US because Donny has demonstrated he lacks good faith. 

What makes you say he lacks good faith? He has repeatedly offered to have talks with Iran, but Iran refuses to budge until sanctions are lifted.

Even North Korea agreed to meet with Trump, despite sanctions not having been lifted.

So why won't Iran? And why are you blaming stalled talks on Trump instead of them?

your first thought is not going to be "Oh, she is mad at her daddy." It's going to be, "Is that her daddy, or is he grabbing her?"

I think it's best to act on the side of caution

In other words, treat him as guilty until he proves himself innocent. The hallmark of a free society!

What other people would we say should be treated this way? Foreigners in Japan? Black people in America?

simon gToday  07:18 am JST

“It’s not prejudice. It’s a fact that men are more likely to commit a crime against children.”

My thoughts exactly. Better safe than sorry.

It is NOT a fact that men are more likely to commit crimes against children. It is not a fact at all.

Do some research. Women are at least as likely, if not more so, to abuse and neglect children and otherwise mistreat them illegally. Studies confirm this.

Just glibly pronouncing men as being more likely to commit crimes against children? That's a vivid example of the very prejudice being referenced in this article.

Moon and the rest of the SK government are being a bunch of drama queens.

I'm not a medical professional, but from what I hear, elderly people's bodies simply cannot adjust to heat or cold the way younger people's bodies can.

Perhaps the heatstroke had set in without the two ladies knowing it or feeling its onset, by which time it was too late.

That's why the elderly really need someone to be with them, especially when it's very hot or very cold.

My grandmother, who died at 100, had to have the room temperature carefully controlled in her house the last several years of her life, because if it got too hot or too cold, her body wouldn't adjust and the doctor said it could be very dangerous for her.

The British never should have returned Hong Kong to this repressive communist regime.

It never made an agreement to return Hong Kong to any such regime.

The agreement they made was with an entity called Qing China, which no longer exists. So why didn't that make the agreement null and void?

browny1 Today  04:42 pm JST

Hopefully the driver will be arrested on charges of "Professional negligence resulting in death".

Just "resulting in injury," I hope. The boy is still alive. I hope and pray he recovers.

It seems awfully unnecessary for the police to drive like that, just to bring someone in for a drug test.

Wow. We have just read all about Nagayama's sob story.

But not a word about the lives, activities, or dreams of his victims.

My goodness, their names aren't even included here. This report doesn't even have the decency to tell us. They've been totally de-humanized in the name of advancing a viewpoint.

It's too bad they never got a chance to establish a "legacy" that this multiple murderer has left, one that is now being glorified by a biased media outlet.

Omar and Tliab are calling this a "Muslim ban."

Baloney. It's not a Muslim ban. It's an anti-Semite ban.

Good on Israel for keeping out these two anti-Semitic nutjobs.