TOKYO — The financial misconduct trial of former Nissan executive Greg Kelly began Tuesday with Kelly saying he committed no crimes and was only trying to keep his star boss Carlos Ghosn from leaving.

The charges being heard at Tokyo District Court center on Kelly's alleged role in failing to report to Japanese authorities the future compensation of Ghosn, who led Nissan Motor Co. for two decades.

Nissan has raised $8 billion in a non-convertible dollar bond sale in one of the biggest ever deals of its kind in Asia.

A former Nissan Motor executive has pleaded not guilty to a charge of underreporting the income of ousted chairman Carlos Ghosn.

Greg Kelly, Ghosn's close aide, attended the opening hearing of his trial at Tokyo District Court on Tuesday.

TOKYO — The criminal trial against Japanese automaker Nissan and its former executive Greg Kelly will open in Tokyo District Court on Tuesday. It's the latest chapter in the unfolding scandal of Carlos Ghosn, a superstar at Nissan until he and Kelly were arrested in late 2018.

Five questions and answers about the trial:

A court in Tokyo will begin the trial of former Nissan Motor executive Greg Kelly next week. He's accused of being involved in the underreporting of income of former chairman Carlos Ghosn.

Ahead of the trial, Kelly gave an exclusive interview to NHK. He's now out on bail.

Before there was the front-wheel-drive Nissan Maxima we all know today, there was the rear-wheel-drive Datsun 810, which was pretty close to a sedan version of the famous Z-Car. The 810 begat the Datsun 810 Maxima, which begat the Datsun Maxima, which begat the Datsun Maxima By Nissan, which begat the final rear-wheel-drive Maxima of 1984. After that, the Maxima got a 300ZX V6 engine, but became front-wheel-drive. Today's Junkyard Gem is one of those incredibly rare straight-six/rear-wheel-drive Maximas of the early "The Name Is Nissan" era, found in a Denver-area self-service yard earlier this month.

Nissan is marching on with its teaser campaign for the Z Proto that will be fully revealed on September 15. Today, Nissan has confirmed in a YouTube video that it will feature a manual transmission.

The video pans sideways to a manual gear lever, then the driver slots it into first gear. So there you have it! The next-gen Z will definitely come with a manual transmission, which, in case you were missing the theme here, is a great thing. It also has a manual emergency brake, a feature slowly (and sadly) being replaced by electric parking brakes in other models.

Nissan has delivered the 500,000th example of the Leaf to its owner in Norway in celebration of World EV Day.

Work continues on the redesigned Nissan Qashqai as spy photographers have snapped a prototype undergoing hot weather testing.

The next-generation Nissan Qashqai (sold in the United States as the Rogue Sport) has been spied in the wild yet again, and this time our enterprising photographers managed to snag a few shots of the replacement crossover's interior. 

Much of the interior is still obscured even in these photos, but we can see enough to tell that Nissan has taken its baby crossover's redesign seriously. We can see a large infotainment screen and interface similar to the ones in Nissan's newer passenger cars, along with what appears to be a full digital gauge cluster. This particular model even has wheel-mounted paddle shifters, indicating we're likely looking at a fairly well-equipped example; the quality of the visible interior materials backs that up. 

PARIS — French carmaker Renault will develop and assemble the next generation of partner Nissan's Micra models, a senior executive at the Japanese firm said, as the two companies try to reboot their alliance with tighter cooperation in production.

Ashwani Gupta, Nissan's chief operating officer, said in an interview with France's Le Monde newspaper published on Monday that the Micra plan was an example of their "leader-follower" strategy, with one firm taking the lead on certain car types.

TOKYO — Nissan says it has developed a new way to produce high-tech auto parts that highlights the Japanese automaker's engineering finesse, even as it faces a criminal trial in an ongoing scandal involving former Chairman Carlos Ghosn.

Nissan Motor Co. said it has achieved a "breakthrough" in molding carbon fiber reinforced plastic, or CFRP, components, now used in racing cars and jets because of their light weight and strength.

Spy photographers have already snapped photos of the redesigned Nissan Frontier, but now we're getting a glimpse inside the upcoming pickup.

This is a public service announcement: Nissan is still working on a replacement for its ancient Z sports car, and that replacement is coming ... soon? The prototype itself will be revealed on Sept. 16, Nissan says, but as for when we'll see the real thing? Well, we'll come back to that. 

First, let's check out this video Nissan posted to its YouTube channel this morning. Packed with footage of Z cars from Nissan's past, the "teaser" doesn't really tease anything new about the forthcoming Z, but Nissan treats us to a montage of clips from the Z's 50-year history, followed by a brief audio clip of an engine revving (skip to 0:38 if you want that bit first) — proof of life, perhaps?