TOKYO (REUTERS, AFP)Transport Minister Kazuyoshi Akaba said on Tuesday (Jan 7) that inspections of large baggage were now mandatory at private jet facilities at Japan's major airports, following the stunning escape of ex-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn from the country.
The 65-year-old executive skipped bail nearly a week ago, fleeing Japan where he was awaiting trial on multiple counts of financial misconduct that he denies. He is now in Lebanon and the details of his escape remain spotty.
Japan said it is still investigating how he slipped past strict security measures imposed as part of his bail conditions.
Media reports had said he hid inside an audio equipment case that went uninspected because it was too large for the X-ray machine at Kansai airport.
Citing sources close to the investigation, public broadcaster NHK said Monday that Ghosn left his residence by himself on the afternoon of Dec 29 and met two men at a Tokyo hotel.
The three then boarded a Shinkansen bullet train together from Tokyo's Shinagawa station to a station in western Osaka, arriving around 7.30 pm. The trio then checked in at a hotel near Kansai Airport, but only both men accompanying Ghosn were caught on security camera leaving the hotel afterwards in the evening, NHK said. They were carrying "two big boxes" which were not checked by customs staff at the airport, the report added.
Ghosn is believed to have taken a private jet from the airport that evening, bound for Istanbul, where he switched planes and continued to Beirut.
Meanwhile, Japan's top government spokesman said on Tuesday that it had told Lebanon that Ghosn's flight was regrettable, and it would seek cooperation to find the truth.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference that Ghosn became an international fugitive after he revealed at the end of the previous month that he had fled to Lebanon to escape what he called a "rigged" justice system in Japan.