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Masuko to step down as Mitsubishi Motors CEO, Kato to succeed him

TOKYO — Mitsubishi Motors Corp said on Friday that Osamu Masuko will step down as its chief executive on June 21 and be replaced by Takao Kato, who is president of its operations in Indonesia. Masuko will retain his role as chairman of the board, Mitsubishi Motors said in a statement, adding that Masuko and Kato will hold a press conference on May 20 to discuss the changes. Japan's sixth-largest automaker, in which Nissan Motor Co holds a controlling stake, said this month it expects profit to fall to 90.0 billion yen ($821 million) in the year to March as it navigates slowing demand for cars, global trade frictions and the need to develop new technologies. Mitsubishi's partners Nissan and France's Renault are meanwhile grappling with the fallout from the arrest of Carlos Ghosn, the group's former chairman, who is facing charges of financial misconduct in Japan. Ghosn has denied all charges against him. Reporting by Stanley White.

Ghosn flight prompts renewed focus on Japan's strict justice system

TOKYO — Carlos Ghosn's daring flight from Japan, where he was awaiting trial on charges of financial wrongdoing, has revived global criticism of the nation's "hostage justice," but in Japan is prompting talk of reversing more lenient curbs on defendants. The ousted boss of Japan's Nissan and France's Renault fled to Lebanon, saying on Tuesday that he had "escaped injustice" and would "no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system." Ghosn was first arrested in November 2018 when his private jet landed in Tokyo and kept in jail for more than 100 days as prosecutors added more charges, all of which he has denied. He was released on $9 million bail in March — only to be arrested and bailed again the following month. He was facing four charges, including underreporting his Nissan salary and transferring personal financial losses to his employer's books while he ran Japan's No. 2 automaker. His apparent escape from Japan's legal system — Tokyo and Lebanon don't have an extradition treaty — will likely halt or even reverse a trend of recent years toward granting bail in more cases, said Colin Jones, a law professor at Doshisha Law School in Kyoto. “I would expect it to be more difficult for foreign defendants to get bail,” Jones said. In Japan, suspects who deny the charges against them are often detained for long periods and subject to intense questioning without a lawyer present, a system critics call "hostage justice." Japanese civil rights groups and the main bar lawyers association have long criticized a system that convicts 99.9% of criminal defendants. They say it gives too much power to prosecutors, who can detain suspects for long periods before indictment, and relies too much on confessions, some later found to have been forced and false. Ghosn's escape is clearly a shock to Japan's legal establishment. "This case raises the extremely serious issue of whether it's all right to continue the trend toward bail leniency," said former prosecutor Yasuyuki Takai. "The legal profession and lawmakers need to quickly consider new legal measures or a system to prevent such escapes," Takai, who was formerly with the special investigation unit of the prosecutor's office, told public broadcaster NHK.

2022 Mitsubishi Outlander pricing, fuel economy announced

Mitsubishi has announced pricing on what is probably the most compelling — and important to the company's future — product in a decade, the 2022 Outlander. As we learned at the reveal, the base ES trim will start at $25,795, or $26,990 when the destination charge is factored in. Fuel economy figures are also in, giving the Outlander a rating of 24 miles per gallon in the city, 31 on the highway and 27 combined for the front-wheel-drive model. Mitsubishi's S-AWC all-wheel-drive system, which is available on any trim for $1,800, drops one mpg highway and combined. By way of comparison, the base 2021 Nissan Roque, which uses a similar engine and platform, gets 27 city, 35 highway and 30 combined in front-wheel drive guise. That combined figure matches that of the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4. It's worth noting that the Mitsubishi Outlander comes standard with a third row for seven-passenger seating, so a direct comparison with the Rogue isn't exactly fair. The ES comes with what is now an obligatory suite of tech, like automatic braking forward and rear, blind spot warnings, and Apple CarPlay/Android Auto. 18-inch alloy wheels are standard, but a $1,000 convenience package adds 20-inchers and the Mitsubishi Connect remote services smartphone link (which comes with 24 months free). That places the three-row ES below the Toyota RAV4 but above the Honda CR-V. Next up is the SE trim, ringing in at $28,845 with everything the ES offers and adding 20-inch wheels, heated front seats and side mirrors, proximity unlocking, and a leather steering wheel. Here, the tech content is boosted quite a bit, with the bird's-eye multi-view camera system, parking sensors, and wireless phone charging. You no longer need an upgrade package to get Mitsubishi Connect, and it also has MiPilot Assist which adds adaptive cruise with stop and go in traffic, lane keeping assist, and traffic sign recognition. The touchscreen gets bumped from 8 to 9 inches, and USB charging ports become available for rear passengers as well. A $2,300 SE Tech Package adds a 12.3-inch LCD instrument panel, premium sound system by Bose, and panoramic sunroof.  The top-spec SEL stickers at $31,945, building upon the other trims while adding the aforementioned 12.3-inch multi-function display, leather seats, 4-way power seats key-linked to memory, three-zone climate control, roof rails, and heated rear seats.