Japan

Firm Overview

Nakamura & Partners, established in 1914, is one of the leading and largest international patent and law firms in Japan. 

The scope of the firm’s practice is very extensive and includes both the prosecution of industrial property rights and litigations and other legal affairs centering on intellectual property law. Specifically, the firm handles patent applications, utility model applications, design applications, trademark and service mark applications, oppositions, and trials before the Japanese Patent Office, and renders expert opinions relating to these industrial property rights. The firm’s legal practice also includes a wide range of counselling and infringement litigations and other types of litigations related to intellectual property laws (patent, trademark, design, utility model, trade secret, unfair competition prevention, copyright, etc.), drafting and negotiations related to joint ventures, licensing, mergers and acquisitions, international business transactions and general corporate affairs.

Firm Overview

The firm

Atsumi & Sakai is a multi-award-winning, independent full-service Tokyo law firm, and the first Japanese law firm to create a foreign law joint venture, which enables it to admit foreign partners and so offer its clients the quality of service that the modern international business community demands. Expanding from its highly regarded finance practice, the firm now acts for a wide range of international and domestic companies, banks, financial institutions and other businesses, offering a comprehensive range of legal expertise.

International practice

Atsumi & Sakai has an outward-looking approach to its international practice, and has foreign partners with extensive experience from leading international law firms, so providing its clients with the benefit of both Japanese law expertise and real international experience. In addition to lawyers admitted in Japan, our firm includes foreign lawyers registered in Japan to advise on the laws of the US States of New York and California, the People's Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, India, the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, England and Wales, and the State of Queensland, Australia, United States and Australian Federal laws, and the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany (in collaboration with Janssen Foreign Law Office).

In addition to our Tokyo head-office and Fukuoka affiliate office in Japan, we have offices in London and Brussels, and affiliated offices in New York and Frankfurt, so enabling us to provide quality services around the clock.

Innovation & diversity

The firm constantly seeks to anticipate its clients’ needs for new legal services, most recently those arising from the rapid technological developments in the financial services industry and strives to provide high-quality and cost-effective services and solutions to support companies new to the Japanese market. The firm also offers flexible alternative fee arrangements tailored to meet the specific needs and goals of each client company. Atsumi & Sakai takes a proactive approach to diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I), and encourages its lawyers to maintain a good work/life balance, which has seen the firm recognised as Japan’s leading law firm for employee satisfaction.

Firm Overview

Masuda & Partners Law Office was established in February 2008 under the leadership of experienced and forward-thinking Japanese lawyer, Eiji Masuda, with the able assistance of his colleagues.

Firm Overview

Mori Hamada & Matsumoto (MHM) is one of the largest full-service Tokyo headquartered international law firms. A significant proportion of the firm’s work is international in nature, representing clients in cross-border transactions, litigation and other dispute resolution proceedings.

Offices
MHM has offices in Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Takamatsu and Sapporo in addition to its Tokyo headquarters. The firm has very strong full-service local law practices in Bangkok (Chandler MHM Limited) and Yangon (Myanmar Legal MHM Limited) and it is expanding its range of local law services in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Jakarta (ATD Law in association with Mori Hamada & Matsumoto) and Manila (Tayag Ngochua & Chu, a member firm of Mori Hamada & Matsumoto). It also has offices in Singapore (MHM ASEAN hub), Shanghai and Beijing. In September 2023, the firm opened an office in New York through which it will further bolster its relationships with peer firms and clients in the US and the broader Americas regions, and provide them with efficient access to MHM’s Japan and ASEAN network.

The firm has strong working relationships with leading firms throughout Asia (as well as in Europe and the Americas), which enables it to work for its clients as a single, integrated team.

The firm’s professionals
MHM firm has over 750 lawyers and 660 support staff including patent attorneys, licensed tax accountants, legal assistants and translators. Its senior lawyers include highly respected practitioners and leaders from the Japanese and international legal community, including prominent law professors from the University of Tokyo, and a former Prosecutor-General from the Public Prosecutors Office. The firm also has experienced lawyers qualified in the US, England and Wales, the People’s Republic of China, Bangladesh, the Philippines, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and more.

Firm Overview

We are proud of our long tradition of serving international business and legal communities and our reputation as one of the largest full-service law firms in Japan. Our combined expertise enables us to deliver comprehensive advice on virtually all legal issues that may arise from a corporate transaction, including those related to M&A, finance, capital markets and restructuring/insolvency, and litigation/arbitration. The majority of our lawyers are bi-lingual and experienced with communicating, drafting and negotiating across borders and around the globe. We welcome the opportunity to work closely with clients and channel our resources towards our goal of achieving more together.

We are headquartered in Tokyo with branch offices in Osaka and Nagoya. Outside Japan, we have offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City Bangkok, London and Brussels. We also have associated firms in Hong Kong and Jakarta.

Firm Overview

Miura & Partners provides legal services to a wide range of clients for numerous legal issues related to their domestic as well as international business. The firm strives to understand the business objective of each client and provide full coverage and top-quality services to meet their strategic business goals.