Japan’s deputy justice minister is travelling to Lebanon this weekend to make the case for the fugitive ex-Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn to be tried in Japan.

Hiroyuki Yoshiie will leave Tokyo on Saturday and meet the Lebanese justice minister, Marie-Claude Najm, on Monday, Japan’s justice ministry said.

Nissan’s former chairman Carlos Ghosn. Photograph: Maya Alleruzzo/AP

The former leader of the Renault-Nissan carmaking alliance made a sensational escape last year from Japan, where he faces trial for financial crimes, including misuse of Nissan funds for personal benefit. He denies the charges.

Ghosn said he fled to his childhood home of Lebanon to clear his name. Lebanon does not have an extradition treaty with Japan.

Brazil-born Ghosn, who also holds Lebanese and French citizenship, returned to Twitter on Thursday for the first time in more than a month, requesting signatures for a petition for the release of fellow former-Nissan executive Greg Kelly, who was arrested at the same time.

“It is Nissan’s hope that Ghosn will return to Japan so that all the facts can be properly established under Japan’s judicial system,” the company said on Friday. The firm filed a civil lawsuit against Ghosn earlier month seeking 10bn yen (£72m) in damages.