The Real Estate Law Review - Sixth Edition - (Japan Chapter)

Norio Maeda is a partner with expertise in transactions involving the acquisition and development of, the financing of, and investment in, Japanese renewable energy projects. He has represented domestic and foreign investors, developers, and lenders, including infrastructure funds, energy companies, and financial institutions from the U.S., Europe, and Asia in numerous green-field and brown-field projects. Norio’s practice also covers transactions involving acquisition and development, investment, and financing with respect to Japanese real estate assets. He is highly skilled at developing innovative investment and financing structures. He has represented domestic and foreign investors, including investment funds, financial institutions, investment managers, and developers from the U.S., Europe, and Asia, in numerous investment and development projects involving sophisticated structures. He also has represented lenders in numerous structured finance transactions involving real estate assets. Norio’s transactional experience includes establishment of Japanese investment platforms into Japanese real estate assets using the TMK and GK-TK schemes, as well as the restructuring of Japanese real estate asset investments. In addition, Norio has extensive experience in inbound cross-border financing transactions for the operation of multi-national corporations in Japan. He has worked on inbound financing transactions under global debt facilities for multi-national corporations headquartered in Asia and other parts of the world. These transactions have involved collateral consisting of various types of assets and have employed a wide variety of credit support structures.

Since 2009, as an attorney in the firm’s finance team, Toshiyuki has been handling various financial transactions and financial regulatory/compliance matters, with a focus on asset management and derivatives, his main practice areas. He advises both domestic and foreign asset managers, financial institutions, and corporates on financial regulation matters in the asset management and derivatives spaces, as well as on contract drafting, regulatory analyses, and development of internal controls for new product launches. Further, he has been involved in numerous cross-border finance transactions and investment transactions by fund operators. Recently, his practical experience expanded to the FinTech space, such as digital securities, and he has been publishing articles and giving presentations on artificial intelligence/machine learning in relation to finance industries. In addition to finance matters, he has extensive experience in handling regulatory defense matters and foreign class actions in cooperation with foreign law firms. Prior to being registered as an attorney-at-law in 2009 and joining the firm, he worked at a Japanese credit rating agency and the Tokyo arm of a U.S. investment bank as a credit analyst in the securitization space. He is a Certified Member Analyst of the Securities Analysts Association of Japan and a Certified International Investment Analyst.