Yamaha Warns Not To Hide In Instrument Cases After Fugitive Escapes In One

Yahama -- the Japanese manufacturer of a wide range of musical instruments including guitars, amplifiers, and drums -- has warned consumers not to climb into musical instrument cases following reports that former Nissan Motor executive Carlos Ghosn fled Japan by hiding inside of one.

Ghosn, who is accused of under-reporting his earnings and misusing company assets, escaped to Lebanon from Japan at the end of 2019 by supposedly hiring a para-military group disguised as a band to perform at a Christmas dinner at his residence while he was under house arrest. From there, he was allegedly stuffed in a musical instrument case and smuggled to Lebanon via more than one airplane. The Japanese government has since issued an international wanted notice for him and his wife Carole, vowing to pursue him indefinitely.

Responding to a rumors and jokes about the escape on social media, Yamaha's wind instrument account issued an urgent, unintentionally humorous plea via Twitter -- seemingly to prevent any potential case of suffocation: “[Please] We won’t mention the reason, but there have been many tweets about climbing inside large musical instrument cases. A warning after any unfortunate accident would be too late, so we ask everyone not to try it,” the account said in Japanese:

Yahama Music Australia took the liberty of translating the tweet for English-speakers:

The original tweet went viral, with over 54,000 retweets and 87,000 likes as of the time this article was published. The account followed up its initial tweet with a second that stated, "[Thank you] It is a tweet that just stated the obvious, but thank you for spreading it with many likes and retweets. I am very surprised. Musical instrument and audio equipment cases are designed to hold musical instruments and audio equipment. Please use them correctly."

We, too, at Kerrang! urge you to use your guitar, bass, and amplifier cases for your instruments only.