Tokio Marine Holdings, Inc. - Acquisition of Integrated Design & Engineering Holdings Co., Ltd.

Since joining the firm, Mitsuhiro Harada has been actively involved in Mergers & Acquisitions and has represented Japanese or non-Japanese buyers or sellers in numerous cross-border transactions in varied industries, including stock and asset acquisitions, private equity and venture capital investments, joint ventures and strategic alliances. He has recently become deeply engaged in international transactions, particularly in assisting Japanese companies with expanding into East and South East Asian markets. In addition, he has provided a broad range of legal services in the field of general corporate matters, including corporate governance issues and civil or commercial disputes.

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.

He served as Director for Foreign Direct Investment Issues at the Ministry of Finance of Japan for three years from 2019 to 2022. During his tenure, he was the chief architect and strategist of the amendment of the FEFTA in 2020, where the threshold for prior mandatory notification for the acquisition of listed company shares by foreign investors was lowered from 10% to 1%. After the enactment of the amendment, he was in charge of reviewing the scope of designated business for the mandatory notification (addition of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment for communicable diseases, and critical mineral resource-related industries), strengthening the operation of screening and post-transaction monitoring, and strengthening cooperation in investment screening with relevant authorities of like-minded countries, including CFIUS of the U.S. He was also engaged in the planning and drafting of the revision of the FEFTA in 2022 (related to crypto assets) and the prohibition of new investment in Russia in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He is the co-author of a section-by-section commentary on FDI screening under the FEFTA (“Sho-kai Gaitame-hou, Inward Direct Investment and Specified Acquisition Edition” (Shoji Homu, June 2021). He was also a speaker at webinars on FDI screening for government officials of member countries organized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

May 2021 – Webinar on Transparency, Predictability and Accountability for investment screening mechanisms
May 2022 – Regulatory proportionality of investment screening mechanisms

Kazumaro’s antitrust practice spans various industries, including automotive, energy, telecommunication, medical/healthcare and finance. Kazumaro regularly represents clients in high-profile matters, including merger and acquisitions that require approval in multiple jurisdictions, and global and domestic cartel investigations.

Using the experience gained from being seconded to an asset management company, he has a broad range of experience in the field of real estate transactions and real estate finance, and his strength lies in his ability to provide advice in the areas of property transactions and property finance, where lawyers are not normally involved in practical correspondence, and to offer flexible solutions tailored to the client’s needs. In addition to the real estate field, he has knowledge in a wide variety of finance fields such as renewable energy projects, large-scale investment projects using Limited Partnerships, and new businesses utilizing leasing transactions. He also has extensive experience in insurance transactions and insurance regulation.

In 2015, Mr. Takefumi Suzuki was dispatched to a leading foreign law firm in Myanmar, where he was stationed for one year. He was also engaged as a special researcher to research legal affairs and markets in Myanmar for two years by the Ministry of Justice of Japan. He has experience in legal education/public interest projects, such as the project to draft the business legal affairs text book for judges in Myanmar with the cooperation of the Supreme Court of Myanmar, and delivered legal lectures to judges in Myanmar on business legal affairs. He has been engaged in a large number of cross-border transactions, such as cross-border M&A and joint venture transactions, and strives to flexibly handle the cases to adjust to and respect local customs and practices based on his broad experience in emerging and developed countries. He also has extensive experience in providing advice to governments and quasi-governmental organizations in Japan and foreign countries.