Welcome back to the podcast, bribed, swindle, or steel.

I'm Alexandra Ragi.

Today we're discussing an excellent new book, Collision Course,

Carlos Gohn, and the Culture Wars that Upended an Auto Empire.

We'll cover Gones rise to pretty close to hero status in Japan. They were famously

carving sushi in his likeness through his incarceration and ultimate escape in a music crate

from Japan to Lebanon, where he lives now. Joining me are the authors of this fantastic new book,

Hans Grimel and William Sposato. Both based in Tokyo, Hans is the Asia

editor with Automotive News, and William is currently a freelance writer with 20 years of experience

covering Japanese politics and economics. He's worked previously at both Reuters and the Wall Street

Journal. They described themselves as an auto geek and a policy wonk. Hans and William,

thank you for joining me.

Thank you, Alexander. Hans, perhaps you can kick things off with an overview of the Gones story from the time he took over the helm of Renault and Nissan through his detention at the airport in November 2018. As I ask you that, it's a pretty tall order. But our listeners will be generally familiar with the story, and maybe you can just give us a refresher.

It's really a classic rise and fall tale.

It's about Carlos Gown, who is one of the highest profile automotive executives in the world.

And he could almost do no wrong.

He cobbled together the world's biggest automotive group,

including the French automaker Renault, Nissan, and then the smaller Japanese automaker Mitsubishi

Motors. And in 2017, they were the world's largest auto group, selling over 10 million cars a year.

And at the height of his career, just as he was preparing his final act of binding them all together

in a way that would hold the companies together after he retired and sailed into the sunset,

he was on a routine business trip back to Japan.

...