Ghosn has been at the forefront of Japan’s recovery efforts following the quake, which killed more than 15,000 people and caused widespread damage. He was one of the first execs to travel into the radiation zone surrounding the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, while Nissan restored operations at one of its damaged engine plants weeks ahead of expectations. Ghosn has set ambitious rebuilding targets for Nissan and has encouraged other automakers not to shift production overseas. Nissan’s production recovery strategy is critical to jumpstarting Japan’s recovery, and no doubt this is something Paul Ingrassia will discuss with Carlos Ghosn in great detail when we get going in around 30 minutes from now.

A note on the timings of today's Thomson Reuters Newsmaker. Just after 10:30 BST/18:30 JST Carlos Ghosn will make a speech, after which he will be interviewed by Reuters' Paul Ingrassia, followed by a Q&A session. So not long now until we get going.

Carlos Ghosn will take to the stage in Tokyo shortly - click on the player above to follow our live stream.

Priority was to help the employees who were directly affected, says Ghosn.

Nissan CEO Ghosn says that tomorrow the company will announce forecasts for 2011, and people will be surprised how much ground they have covered in recuperating the company.

Ghosn: It was a tragedy for Japan and its people, but it is also an opportunity to fix things you could not have fixed before. It should open our eyes to certain weaknesses.

Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Reuters News Paul Ingrassia is being introduced. Ingrassia will now moderate the discussion with Carlos Ghosn.

Question from Ingrassia: What lessons learned from the turnaround of Nissan can be applied to Japan in the wake of the March 11 disaster?

Ghosn: In the wake of the disaster, the Japanese workforce has shown that it is second to none in its speed and execution.

Ghosn: Production stopped and it stopped for many weeks on March 11. I can tell you today that we are today very near normal production.

Nissan CEO: "We are approaching normal production" in Japan.

Ghosn: never would have expected Japan output to snap back this quickly 2 months ago

Ghosn: Our roots are in Japan. We want to produce one million cars a year in Japan and we will. We will fight for it.

Ingrassia: Are you worried that a global economic slowdown or double dip is a danger right now?

Ghosn: I think the emerging market will do well, that the US economy will recover. But it may not be linear.

Nissan CEO Ghosn says does not see double-dip recession.

Time for questions from the audience.

Ghosn says Nissan has plans to expand into Russia, where the market is going to expand. They are well placed to be the number one Japanese brand in Russia, he adds.

Ghosn says there is tremendous growth in the market in India, and Nissan needs to position itself to grab some of this growth. There are a lot of markets where they have made massive investment, he says, and it's time to benefit from this.

Ghosn not optimistic on Japan car sales. "We are relatively bearish on internal consumption in Japan."

Nissan CEO Ghosn says China replacing US as most profitable auto market

Ghosn: I expect one or two Chinese global car makers to emerge.

Nissan's Ghosn sees one or two "global champions" emerging from ranks of China automakers. Says could happen through acquisition.

"The alliance is not perfect but it's working." Ghosn at Reuters Summit on Renault-Nissan tie-up. "You never hear about conflicts."

Ghosn: After the earthquake there is no resistance to localisation. We have localised production and it’s one of the reasons why we are recovering faster.

Nissan's Ghosn: Japan quake will drive Japanese automaker to shift more engine and transmission output to China and other markets

Nissan CEO Ghosn: to forecast "significantly higher" sales
r.reuters.com #RSUM2011

Nissan's Carlos Ghosn has now left the building. Read about his appearance at Reuters Tokyo: www.reuters.com