Sapporo Securities Exchange: Launch of the Hokkaido ESG Pro-Bond Market
Nishimura & Asahi advised the Sapporo Securities Exchange on the launch of the Hokkaido ESG Pro-Bond Market. This is the first new market in 25 years on the Sapporo Stock Exchange and Japan’s first market for professional investors focusing on ESG bonds. The launch of this market is a regional initiative for the “Special Zones for Financial and Asset Management Businesses specialized in Green Transformation (GX)” of Hokkaido Prefecture and Sapporo City advanced by Team Sapporo-Hokkaido, aiming to promote ESG investment both domestically and outside of Japan.
The team was led by partners Kohei Koikawa, Susumu Tanizawa and Miki Tsubono, and supported by associates Makiko Yada and Yoshihiko Sugie.
People
After earning his LL.M. at Vanderbilt University Law School in the U.S., he worked as a secondee at a NY office of a leading Japanese bank and the Tokyo office of an international investment bank. Upon returning to N&A, he developed an extensive track record in a broad range of finance matters, including financial regulations, capital markets (especially REIT), ship finance, M&A in the financial sector, compliance, and communication with financial authorities. He is one of the main members of our FinTech practice team and has extensive experience with respect to FinTech-related matters, and has advised a wide variety of clients, ranging from traditional financial institutions to start-ups. He also has particular expertise in regard to the payment space. In addition, he advises clients on financial regulations in M&A transactions involving financial institutions, and has experience in a broad range of cross-border matters, including inbound and outbound transactions.
Miki Tsubono is a LPC partner and the head of our Sapporo Office. He established our Sapporo office in April 2023 and has supported clients mainly in Hokkaido.
Leveraging the extensive and specialized skills of over 900 professionals at Nishimura & Asahi across 22 offices in Japan and abroad, he offers comprehensive business law services tailored to each client’s specific needs. His experience encompasses a broad range of business law areas including M&A, general corporate, finance, corporate crisis management, restructuring and insolvency, dispute, competition law, intellectual property law, information law, labor law, and wealth management.
Recently, he has handled numerous projects in the GX/energy and agribusiness sectors in Hokkaido, including business development, investment, and corporate/project finance.
He has extensive experience in M&A transactions including cross-border transactions and carve-out transactions as well as business succession transactions in Hokkaido.
He also has experience working for a new business development division of a Hokkaido company and provides services related to general corporate matters including daily legal consultations, support for contract drafting and review, business decisions, and general meetings of shareholders, as well as company internal training.
He has an extensive track record representing issuers, managers, and selling shareholders in various capital market transactions, including global IPOs, global follow-on offerings, convertible bond offerings, debt offerings, private investments in public companies (PIPEs), and J-REIT offerings. He has also been active in finance transactions by venture companies.