‘Playing Ghosn’ challenge has people squeezing into music cases, Yamaha issues warning

The 'challenge', which is inspired by the method former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn allegedly used to escape captivity, has people in Japan squeezing into cramped cases that are meant to keep music instruments and posting the images on social media.

By: Trends Desk

New Delhi | January 16, 2020 04:10 PM IST

3 min read

People have been trying to fit in musical instrument boxes to participate in playing Ghosn or Ghosn escape challenge.

Two weeks after former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn was smuggled out of Japan allegedly in a big audio instrument box, musical instrument manufacturer Yamaha has had to issue a warning not to try squeezing themselves into cases meant for musical instruments.

The warning comes amid a viral challenge in Japan called the ‘playing Ghosn’, which had people climbing into cases as part of the challenge. People were squeezing themselves into music instrument cases or concealing themselves inside hard cardboard boxes and posting images on social media.

On Tuesday, Yamaha posted a tweet warning people about the dangers of participating in this challenge.

“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 Japanese company said in a post on its Twitter handle.

The ‘playing Ghosn’ craze has swept Japan over the last few days and social media sites have been flooded with photos and videos of people trying fit inside music instrument cases or large cases. From guitar cases to piano transport boxes, people are listing various cases that can used.

The former auto executive, who is now a fugitive, has declined to reveal how he slipped past Japanese airport security, or confirm media reports that accomplices smuggled him through a private jet lounge in Kansai Airport in western Japan hidden in large speaker box that was too large to fit through the facility’s X-ray scanner.

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Ghosn, who is accused of concealing earnings, transferring investment losses to Nissan and misappropriating company funds, escaped from Japan in December and fled to Lebanon. The former CEO had been detained since November 2018 in Japan on charges of financial misconduct. Japanese authorities have vowed to pursue him and have issued an international wanted notice for him and wife Carole.

In a press conference in Lebanon on January 8, Ghosn said he was “innocent of all the charges.”

[with inputs from Reuters]

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