REVIEW OF US & EU COMPETITION LAW CASES

Madoka advises clients on various matters of competition law, including domestic and international cartels, bid-rigging, M&A transactions, investigations by the JFTC, leniency applications and general antitrust law compliance. She is especially active in cross-border transactions. She has represented clients in connection with investigations into various global cartels, involving air cargo, marine hoses, TFT-LCDs, airlines, and bearings, and also in various merger-control cases, including a vertical integration between semiconductor equipment manufacturers, and major global merger transactions in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. She has particular strength and experience handling IT-industry mega deals. Madoka is also active in advising in the international trade area, in particular, government procurement and export control. In addition, she advises on laws preventing unfair competition, including trade secret cases. She served as lead counsel to Nippon Steel Corporation in multinational trade secret litigation against POSCO (a South Korean steel company), a landmark case in this area, and successfully negotiated a favorable settlement for her client. She was a member of the Subcommittee on Unfair Trade Policies and Measures of the Industrial Structure Council at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry from 2013 to 2023.

Shintaro Uno is one of Japan’s leading experts on FIDIC and other construction-industry contracts. He specializes in international engineering and construction of infrastructure projects around the world, with a particular focus on Japan and Asia. He has extensive experience advising on a wide range of projects, including semiconductor plants, data centers, high-speed railways, highways, submarine cables, coal-mining process facilities, Mass Rapid Transit, high-rise buildings, lithium hydroxide plants, various types of power plants, tunnels, ports, dredging, offshore wind, and water treatment and supply facilities, with primary contracts based on the standard FIDIC contract forms (including Redbook, Yellowbook, Silverbook 1999 and 2017 editions), Minkanrengo Building contract, Nikkenren Design Build, and ENAA. 

On the contentious side, Shintaro successfully represents both employers and contractors in proceedings before Dispute Adjudication Boards, international arbitral tribunals, and national courts. He has particular expertise in arbitration under the SIAC, ICC, BANI, and DIAC rules.

Shintaro has been recognized as a Leading Individual in the Construction: International category by Chambers Asia-Pacific for three consecutive years (2023–2025), reflecting his reputation and track record in the region.

Over the past 14 years, Shintaro has been based in Southeast Asia, where he has advised on numerous complex disputes and crisis scenarios. His regional experience is especially extensive in Indonesia, where he has handled more than 70 contentious matters—including litigation, internal investigations, local arbitrations, and criminal cases—demonstrating his capability to navigate sensitive legal issues in cross-border settings.

Kojiro Fujii specializes in the fields of competition law and international trade law. He also covers emerging areas of digital policy/regulations and public policy/regulations, such as those related to sustainability. His expertise in these areas is frequently recognized by international and domestic legal publications. Kojiro also is regularly ranked by Chambers (Band 1 International Trade, Japan and Band 2 TMT, Japan) and Who’s Who Legal (Competition). He achieved the highest ranking in the “International Trade and Economic Security” category of Nikkei’s “Most successful lawyers” (as voted by Japanese companies and peer lawyers) in 2022; he was recognized by Asian Legal Business as one of the Top 15 Technology, Media and Telecommunications Lawyers in Asia in 2023; and he was shortlisted for the FT Innovative Lawyers Awards Asia-Pacific as the Most Innovative Practitioner for his work covering those areas in 2024.

In addition to his career at N&A, he served as the deputy director of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan, where he handled several important WTO disputes on behalf of the Japanese government. He also worked at a highly reputable international law firm in Washington DC, where he focused on antitrust matters.

Tomoyuki Numata specializes in crisis management and competition law compliance, with a wealth of experience in cases that require understanding of IT and technology. 

As a partner in the crisis management department, he has extensive experience in dealing with cases such as window dressing, bribery of overseas civil servants, fraudulent acquisition of confidential information, violation of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, quality fraud in the manufacturing industry, and embezzlement by employees. In these cases, he was responsible for fact-finding and investigating the cause. He has also taken a number of strategic actions, such as dealing with government and investigative authorities (including experience of commitment agreement with the JFTC and judicial transactions), communicating with the mass media, and formulating recurrence prevention measures. 

In the field of antitrust law / competition law, he is involved in cartel / bid negotiation cases including criminal cases / administrative cases, unilateral acts cases such as private monopoly, unfair trading methods, etc. He also handles a lot of authorities’ responses. In addition, he has a wealth of experience in dealing with domestic and overseas business combination investigation by the Japan Fair Trade Commission and overseas competition authorities. 

He also provides a lot of advice on creating a legal compliance system such as anti-bribery system, competition law management system, whistleblowing system, internal audit and monitoring. In particular, he is familiar with system development utilizing advanced technologies such as machine learning, data analytics, and text mining.