Law, Policy and Practice in the Energy Industry

Hiroyasu Konno specializes in the energy and natural resources sector, mainly in the upstream and middle-stream sectors, such as projects and transactions regarding LNG, biomass fuels, coal, rare metals, copper ore, petroleum, and other minerals in the world, as well as the down-stream sectors such as transactions regarding electricity and gas in Japan. He has a breadth of knowledge about industrial practices and policy trends, through his experience working as a secondee, or temporary worker, at Nippon Oil (currently ENEOS), JOGMEC (Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (currently Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security))，and JERA, in addition to an energy and natural resources team in a foreign law firm, as well as experience from being a committee member of relevant governmental panels. He always endeavors to provide clients with legal services with additional value, including managerial perspectives. He handles all kinds of legal issues related to the energy and natural resources sector, by closely working together with N&A’s experts in each sector. He also actively works on legal issues with regard to “carbon”, such as CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage), transactions of carbon credits, and others.

With regard to competition laws, he advises clients on various matters of competition law for both domestic and international cases. He has represented clients with many important international cartel cases, including auto-parts, TFT-LCD, air cargo and high voltage power cables. He also handled significant merger cases in various industries, such as nuclear, security exchanges, local banks, steel and metals, food and agriculture, airlines, paper and natural resources. His practice also covers private monopolization, unilateral conduct and unfair trade practices, including vertical restraints and abuse of superior bargaining position, including platform business and internet industries. He also has been very active in the field of international trade matters. He is one of few lawyers in Japan who acted on behalf of various industries with regard to anti-dumping (AD) and counter-vailing duties (CVD) in Japan and overseas. While he served as deputy director of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan, he handled several important WTO disputes on behalf of Japanese government. He continues to advice both public and private sectors with regard to various sorts of trade law matters associated with WTO, investment treaties and Regional Trade Agreements. His trade expertise also covers export controls, investment screenings, economic sanctions and customs matters.

Jun is a partner in our corporate crisis management practice, who handles domestic and overseas corporate crisis management matters, including conducting internal investigations, responding to relevant authorities and stock exchanges, the media, handling labor disputes, representing companies in relevant legal proceedings in relation to various corporate misconduct matters, such as quality falsification issues by manufacturing companies, financial fraud issues, etc. Jun has experience as a member of an investigation committee on corporate misconduct. Jun was previously seconded to a global trading company, and he has extensive experience in handling cross-border corporate crisis management matters and establishing global compliance programs. Jun is also a partner in our energy and natural resources practice, where he mainly advises utility companies, including providing advice on domestic and overseas investments, contracts, regulations, and disputes in relation to energy and natural resources.