Hiroto Saikawa, who served as chief executive of Nissan under Carlos Ghosn, has warned that the carmaker has been damaged by Japanese nationalists wanting to unwind its 20-year alliance with France’s Renault.

In his final interview before a new chief is installed on Monday, Mr Saikawa said: “There were people inside Nissan who held deeply rooted conservative views that the company should go back to before it faced its financial crisis in the late 1990s. These forces were unleashed when the Ghosn system fell.”

Mr Saikawa’s last 12 months as Nissan’s head have been overshadowed by a historic collapse in profits, suspicions that he led a corporate coup against his chairman, Mr Ghosn, and accusations that he signed off on a retirement package at the heart of allegations against his former boss.