Secret Files of Nissan Motor: One Man’s Deadly Seven-Year Battle Against Absolute Power
Noriaki Kawakatsu
President: 2018
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He was beyond all bounds of normality,” says one of the key Nissan conspirators. “So we had to be even more abnormal than him.” There was plenty of evidence to support their case. Not for nothing was their target known as the “Emperor” of Nissan Motors, Japan’s second largest auto producer, behind Toyota. A big figure with powerful political connections, he had done great things for the company in the past. More recently, though, his arrogance and sense of entitlement had swollen to extraordinary proportions. His contemptuous treatment of subordinates and suppliers was ugly to behold, his monthly expenses equivalent to a middle manager’s annual salary.

Opposing the Emperor publicly was not a good idea: glittering careers had been destroyed with a single criticism. The only way was to bypass the usual corporate apparatus of committees and meetings. Instead, the conspirators would do their own private detective work, amassing incriminating evidence in painstaking detail.

Needless to say, the whole operation would have to be carried out in total secrecy. Then, when the timing was right, the story would burst into the world like a bombshell.

• Tags: Carlos Ghosn, Ichiro Shioji, Issue 14, Japan, Katsuji Kawamata, Nissan, Noriaki Kawakatsu, Peter Tasker