Senator Kay Hagan Airport Traffic Control Tower

Floor Speech

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Mr. WICKER. Madam President, I have a serious matter to discuss with the Senators about the U.S. relationship with our ally Japan.

Japan has been a valued American partner in the Pacific. It is our fourth largest trading partner and a close military ally. Our nations are better off because of the alliance between Japan and the United States, and I hope it grows stronger in the days ahead.

I regret that today I must be sharply critical of the Japanese Government. I rise to express concern over Japan's unjust treatment of an American citizen, Greg Kelly. It is a concern that raises questions about whether Americans can be comfortable about Japan's adherence to the basic rule of law. Mr. Kelly has become the latest victim of Japan's criminal justice system. Some have called it a hostage justice system. Even some leaders in Japan have called it a hostage justice system, because it is. It is unfair, harsh, and arbitrary. Japanese prosecutors have an alarming conviction rate of 99 percent, which is clearly designed to produce guilty verdicts.

Greg Kelly is a Tennessee resident who joined Nissan in 1988 and became a respected employee. He rose steadily within the company and in June of 2012 became the first American to join Nissan's board. Yet, shortly before Thanksgiving of 2018, his 30-year career at Nissan came to a crashing halt--a troubling halt to his career and to fundamental fairness.

A company executive lured him to Tokyo for what was supposed to be an urgent business meeting. Mr. Kelly was 2 weeks away from having badly needed neck surgery and was hesitant to travel internationally, but the Nissan executive assured him he would be home within a week, so Mr. Kelly boarded a Nissan corporate jet to Tokyo. In fact, Greg Kelly had been lied to and was walking into a trap that had been designed by Nissan executives and Japanese authorities.

According to emails obtained by Bloomberg News, that Nissan executive was working in collusion with Japanese prosecutors to disrupt a merger between Nissan and the French auto company, Renault. Greg Kelly was involved in negotiating that merger. Their plan required framing him for bogus financial crimes and throwing him under the bus.

While he was en route to Tokyo, Nissan executives launched a ``boardroom coup'' to strip Mr. Kelly of his position. Government prosecutors seized his boss, Carlos Ghosn, chairman of the board of Nissan, for allegedly underreporting his income--another bogus charge.

Hours later, upon his arrival at the airport, Mr. Kelly was arrested on these trumped-up charges. Mr. Kelly was treated with cruelty by Japanese authorities from day one. He was kept in solitary confinement for 34 days. This American citizen, this resident of the State of Tennessee, was kept in solitary confinement, where he slept on the floor in the dead of winter and had no heat. He was interrogated daily, for several hours at a time, without having the presence of a defense counsel--a basic legal right.

This is the treatment given to our American citizen by Japanese authorities. His requests for medical attention were refused. When they did eventually allow him to get surgery, it was too late to do much good, and, predictably, Greg Kelly's physical condition got worse. Thankfully, Mr. Kelly was eventually allowed to live in a Tokyo apartment while he awaited trial. His trial began only this month--more than 650 days after his arrest.

With regard to former CEO Carlos Ghosn, in a celebrated escapade, Mr. Ghosn was able to escape from Japan to his native Lebanon after being released on bail, but Greg Kelly remains in Japan to this day and vehemently denies the charges against him.

It is noteworthy that the CEO of Nissan, Hiroto Saikawa, was involved in the same negotiations as Mr. Kelly. In other words, if Mr. Kelly is guilty of a financial crime, so is Mr. Saikawa. Yet, instead of being arrested, he was allowed to simply resign.

Japanese leaders may deny it, but it looks an awful lot like there is a double standard in Japan's justice system--a lenient standard for native Japanese and a much harder one for Americans. This double standard is not lost on American businesses, and it is not lost on this Senator. Japan should worry about the consequences of its behavior. A perceived legal bias could put a seriously chilling effect on our economic relationship as more Americans think twice about doing business in Japan or doing business with Japan.

Mr. Kelly's treatment in the Japanese courtroom has been no less appalling. The trial began a few days ago, and the court allowed prosecutors to give a 6-hour presentation at the opening of the trial, with there being no simultaneous English translation.

They denied the same right to Mr. Kelly. He has yet to make his opening statement. Instead of letting Mr. Kelly speak in his own defense, the court then recessed for 2 weeks.

The proceedings have been incredibly slow and will continue to be incredibly slow. The trial is expected to last more than a year because Japanese rules allow the prosecutors to meet at the trial for only 6 days per month and also because the court refused to allow simultaneous English translation at the trial.

This is a stark reminder of how fortunate we are in this country, under our Constitution, which guarantees the right to a speedy trial.

I have zero confidence that the Japanese criminal justice system will give Mr. Kelly a fair trial. The fix was in for him from the beginning. His being lured to Japan, his wrongful arrest, his deplorable treatment in solitary confinement and in court are a scandal worthy of Vladimir Putin, not our allies in Japan. It should be an embarrassment for any modern democracy.

This is a matter that should have been resolved in the board room and by shareholders. This needless ordeal sends an unmistakable message to the American business community: If you do business in Japan, you had better watch your back. When it suits Japanese interests, they could set a trap for you, throw you under the bus, put you in prison, deprive you of your rights to counsel and your rights to return home, and waste years of your life needlessly. That is the message it sends to the American business community.

This is a shameful story for an ally of the United States, and it looms as an ominous shadow over the coming Tokyo Olympic Games, the recently completed U.S.-Japan agreement, and future trade negotiations.

Our two nations have shared in prosperity for decades because of mutual respect and mutual cooperation. I hope our Japanese friends will show a renewed interest in preserving that relationship, which has been harmed by the Greg Kelly fiasco.

The newly installed Prime Minister of Japan, Prime Minister Suga, needs to intervene in this matter. Japan needs to right this wrong and end this highly visible stain on its international reputation.

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