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Carlos Ghosn's lawyers in Japan quit after client's flight to Lebanon

TOKYO — Japanese attorneys representing Carlos Ghosn, including lead lawyer Junichiro Hironaka, quit on Thursday following the former Nissan chiefÂ’s flight to Lebanon from Japan, where he had been fighting financial misconduct charges. Hironaka had been representing Ghosn in his defense against financial misconduct charges. His move, announced Thursday, was widely expected after Ghosn escaped to Lebanon late last month. A second lawyer in GhosnÂ’s three-person legal team, Takashi Takano, also quit on Thursday, according to an official at his office. A person who answered the telephone at the office of the third lawyer, Hiroshi Kawatsu, said she did not know if he still represented the former automotive executive. Hironaka said in a statement that the entire team working on the case at his office will quit but did not outline reasons. He has said before he felt some empathy for Ghosn's reasons for escape, while stressing he had hoped to win vindication in court. Hironaka is respected for winning high-profile cases in this nation where the conviction rate is higher than 99%. Among the cases he has handled is that of Atsuko Muraki, a Welfare Ministry official accused of falsely approving a group to qualify for mail discounts. She was acquitted in 2010. Also Thursday, Nissan released steps it was taking to prevent a recurrence of Ghosn's scandal, and reiterated its denouncement of Ghosn. The automaker said in a report submitted to the Tokyo Stock Exchange that Ghosn had the authority to “single-handedly” determine directors' compensation and such information was not shared with other departments at the company. The underreporting of his future compensation is among the allegations Ghosn faced in Tokyo. In a news conference last week in Beirut, Ghosn insisted again that he was innocent of the charges, which also included breach of trust in diverting Nissan money for his personal gain. He said he fled because he felt he could not expect a fair trial in Japan. Ghosn's flight while he was out on bail awaiting trial means his case will not go on in Japan. Interpol has issued a wanted notice but his extradition from Lebanon is unlikely. Ghosn has accused Nissan and Japanese officials of conspiring to bring him down to block a fuller integration of Nissan with its French alliance partner Renault SA of France. Ghosn, who has signed on an international team of lawyers, has expressed willingness to stand trial in Lebanon.

Japan plans real-world diesel emissions test after companies fail

Japan's transport ministry plans to start real-world diesel emissions tests after an experiment found four models from Toyota, Nissan, and Mitsubishi that produced more nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions than the nation's rules allow, according to The Japan Times. Regulators there usually only perform emissions checks in the lab. The VW diesel scandal has everyone double-checking their figures. Diesel versions of the Toyota Hiace van, Land Cruiser Prado, and Nissan X-Trail produced up to 10 times more NOx than allowed. The Mitsubishi Delica D:5 was up to five times over the limit, The Wall Street Journal reports. There was no evidence of defeat devices in the vehicles. Mazda performed well in the experiment, though. The CX-5 passed with nearly the same results on the road and in the lab. The Demio, better known as the Mazda2, did nearly as well with only slighter higher figures in the real world than in the controlled setting. The experimenters theorized the reason for the excessive emissions was that cold weather caused the engines' software to shut off the exhaust gas recirculation to prevent damage, according to the WSJ. However, this behavior also increased NOx production. Toyota, Nissan, and Mitsubishi don't have to worry about punishment from the transport ministry because this check was just an experiment. Their models already passed the mandated lab tests, which was the only requirement, according to The Japan Times. As governments begin greater real-world emissions tests, the results suggests diesels aren't very clean. A recent check in France found models from Ford, Renault, and Mercedes-Benz that didn't perform up to the standards. Regulators in India conducted similar evaluations and ordered VW to recall over 300,000 vehicles. Related Video:

Nissan drives glowing Leaf on Holland's glowing highway

If you thought that applying phosphorescent paint to the Nissan Leaf made it look like something out of Tron already, brother... you don't know the half of it. Or at least you won't have until you see what the car looks like on a glow-in-the-dark highway. A glow-in-the-what-now, you ask? That's right: for about a third of a mile on the N329 in the Netherlands, running through the city of Oss, the highway glows in the dark. Not the whole roadway, of course. That'd be weird. Even for the Dutch. No, the so-called Smart Highway designed by Daan Roosegaarde (whose Dutch heritage is evident by the number of vowels in his name) uses phosphorescent stripes to obviate the need for lighting. They work just like the paint on the Leaf (or for that matter any number of toys we had as kids), absorbing sunlight during the day and emitting it at night... in this case for up to eight hours. The resulting footage and photography, though surely heavily edited, needs to be seen to be believed. That is, assuming you don't already live in a computer where users force you to play in games for their own amusement and Jeff Bridges runs amok. Related Video: BRIGHT FUTURE: NISSAN LEAF IS FIRST GLOW-IN-THE-DARK CAR TO DRIVE GLOWING HIGHWAY · All-electric Nissan LEAF is the first glow-in-the-dark car to drive on the luminous Smart Highway in Oss, Netherlands · Unique highway design saves energy by removing need for street lights · Nissan EV sales increase by 313% across the Netherlands · Watch the film at: https://youtu.be/8Dv3PxDj2ks Nissan has blazed a trail by driving its unique glow-in-the-dark zero-emission LEAF along the world's first glow-in-the-dark motorway in Oss, Netherlands. Nissan recently became the first modern passenger car manufacturer to apply glow-in-the-dark car paint to a car, to showcase how many customers of the world's best-selling electric vehicle are powering their car from solar energy generated at home. Now it has gone one step further, by driving the all-electric Nissan LEAF on the Smart Highway – the first time a phosphorescent car has been driven on the famous stretch of road. And the location of the world's only luminescent highway was fitting, as Nissan has announced an uplift in electric vehicle sales of 313 percent in the Netherlands last year. The innovative Smart Highway project was conceived by designer Daan Roosegaarde to help guide drivers in the dark, while saving energy that might otherwise be used in street lighting.