It’s no surprise that the dramatic story of Carlos Ghosn—who went from turnaround hero at Renault and Nissan to accused criminal who fled Japan hidden in a music instrument case—would be turned into a Netflix documentary titled Fugitive: The Curious Case of Carlos Ghosn (released November 2, 2022). USALI affiliated scholar Bruce Aronson Japanese Law and Society Seminar NYU Law students watched and graded the Ghosn documentary Read more.

The controversial arrest and prosecution of former Nissan Motors Chairman Carlos Ghosn in November 2018 put Japanese criminal justice under a harsh international spotlight and caused comparative law scholars to ask: how unusual are Japan’s criminal justice procedures? This symposium, edited by USALI Resident Affiliated Scholar Bruce Aronson, contains six essays written from a variety of comparative law perspectives that provide new insight into criminal justice systems both within and outside Japan. Read more.

Recent Publications

• Lessons from Toshiba: Corporate Governance in the Era of Activist Shareholders (2022)

• The Rapid Growth of ESG in Japan Through Public-Private Partnership (2022)

• The US-Japan Digital Trade Agreement and “Data Free Flow with Trust” (2022)

• The Impact of the Landmark Sapporo Ruling on Marriage Equality in Japan by former USALI visiting scholar Takeharu Kato (2021)

• Nikkei Shimbun: Have Prosecutors Changed? featuring Affiliated Scholar Bruce Aronson (2021)

• A Valentine Present for Japanese Same-Sex Couples by Professor Frank Upham (2020)

• Why China Should Take Japan to the ICJ by Shinya Murase (2020)

Event Recordings

• The Debate Over New Forms of Capitalism in Japan and the US (2022)

• Revising Japan’s Security Policy for a Rapidly Changing World (2022)

• US-Japan Partnership in Climate Change (2022)

• Negotiations on Investment Facilitation for Development at the WTO (2022)

• Japan’s Once and Future Foreign Policy (2022)

• Lawyering the Olympics (2021)

• The Future of U.S.-Japan Trade Relations (2021)

• How Japan Justifies the Death Penalty (2020)

• COVID’s Challenge to Japan and Korea (2020)

• WWII Reparations in Contemporary East Asia with Tim Webster (2020)

• Property Law as Housing Policy in Postwar Japan with Colin Jones (2020)

Activities

• Maritime Dispute Resolution Project including workshops and publications about the role of international tribunals and other means of resolving territorial disputes. (2019, 2020)

• Conference at Ritsumeikan University (Osaka, Japan) discussing wrongful convictions and the misuse of forensic evidence in criminal cases. (2019)

• Professor Cohen receives Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon for his lifelong work of enhancing an understanding of Japan for people in the United States of America. (2018)

• Gelatt Dialogue (2017) features Ambassador Reiichiro Takahashi discussing territorial disputes in the East China Sea.

Cooperation with the Japan Federation of Bar Associations

The U.S.-Asia Law Institute has a longstanding cooperative relationship with the JFBA, which self-regulates the legal profession in Japan.