Acquisition of Sanyo Special Steel Co., Ltd. and Ovako AB by Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation

Kozo’s anti-trust/competition practice covers every area of the practice, i.e., violation cases such as cartel and unilateral conduct, merger regulations, and compliance to prevent violations of Japanese and foreign competition laws. Kozo continues to be recognized by international law journals as one of the top practitioners in Japan in the area of competition law. He has handled large scale international cartel cases and has contributed to the realization of prominent merger regulations. In the area of international trade law, Kozo is widely recognized as a pioneer of trade law practice in Japan and has advised both the private sector and governmental agencies. He has been involved in most of the trade remedy investigations, such as those for the imposition of anti-dumping duties and subsidy countervailing duties as counsel to Japanese and foreign clients, and in some overseas trade remedy investigations to defend Japanese clients. In addition, Kozo’s practice covers international disputes, corporate crisis management, and regulatory investigations.

Ryutaro Nakayama specializes in General Corporate and M&A work, and advises clients on a broad range of issues and transactions relating to M&A, Japanese corporate, securities, tax, and merger control laws, and regulations specific to various industries. He is a leading lawyer in the field of competition law in Japan, and possesses a unique set of skills and experience, drawn from his extensive experience handling M&A, corporate, and merger control cases and transactions. He has obtained transaction clearances from competition authorities even where the resulting combined market share exceeded 50% in the relevant markets. He has led Nishimura & Asahi’s Africa Practice Team since its formation in 2014. He has established a strong network of connections with Japanese entrepreneurs and businesses that target the African continent, as well as with leading law firms based in Africa. He has been named a leading lawyer in the fields of Corporate/M&A and/or competition law by various publications, including Chambers Global, Chambers Asia-Pacific, and The Nikkei’s annual rankings of “Most Successful Lawyers.” He was appointed the Managing Partner of Nishimura & Asahi in April 2021.

Since joining Nishimura & Asahi in 2006, Yasunori has dealt with various M&A transactions in Japan and overseas. In particular, with respect to transactions involving listed companies, he excels at strategizing flexibly based on the complex circumstances and needs of the parties concerned, and seeing such projects to completion. When handling M&A transactions, he places an emphasis on maximizing the benefit to his clients while giving due consideration to the overall benefit to all of those involved. In addition to the above, Yasunori has advised on defenses against hostile takeovers and responses to shareholder activism for companies such as Toshiba Machine (currently Shibaura Machine) and Tokyo Kikai Seisakusho. In recent years, he has also provided advice for the acquisition side of hostile takeovers, with industrial companies as his clients.