Basics of Compliance and Corporate Crisis Management for Legal Practitioners

Mr. Kimeda’s main areas of practice are Corporate Crisis Management and Litigation. As for Corporate Crisis Management, he has extensive experience in corporate scandal cases, including window-dressing, misrepresentation of financial statements, insider trading, antitrust (bid rigging, price cartels, and abuse of dominant position), product defects, misleading representations of products, divulging confidential information, bribery, political funding, money laundering, breach of industrial regulations, and factory accidents. In these types of cases he has specific expertise on the issues of internal investigations, third party committee investigations, defending against criminal and administrative investigations, public relations, rebuilding compliance systems, reforming corporate governance, and handling the related civil litigation. He also serves as an outside whistleblower hotline channel for a number of companies. As for litigation, he has considerable experience in tax disputes, shareholders disputes, and other types of corporate litigation. He is the author of numerous legal articles and has also been involved in the process of making laws and regulations. He has been recognized as one of the “Most successful lawyers” by the NIKKEI for the last several years as below.

2023 Corporate Crisis Management category 1st
2021 Corporate Crisis Management category 1st
2020 Corporate Crisis Management category 1st
2018 Corporate Crisis Management category 2nd
2014 Corporate Crisis Management category 2nd
2011 Corporate Crisis Management category 3rd
2024 Corporate Legal Affairs category 17th
2022 Corporate Legal Affairs category 9th
2016 Corporate Legal Affairs category 10th
2015 Corporate Legal Affairs category 8th
2013 Corporate Legal Affairs category 2nd
2012 Corporate Legal Affairs category 4th

His main practice area is corporate crisis management and litigation. He is also highly knowledgeable and experienced on matters involving foreign investigations and regulatory authorities. He has dealt with many cases in relation to investigations by the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission, the Japanese Fair Trade Commission, the Japanese Public Prosecutor’s Office, etc., as well as foreign authorities such as the U.S. Department of Justice. He has also dealt with a variety of cases such as misconduct by executives and employees, violation of environmental regulations, violation of the regulation regarding pharmaceutical and medical equipment, etc. In addition to cases that require emergency responses, he has advised many companies to build effective whistleblowing systems and anti-bribery compliance programs, and he has assisted with due diligence procedures from a compliance perspective.

Jun is a partner in our corporate crisis management practice, who handles domestic and overseas corporate crisis management matters, including conducting internal investigations, responding to relevant authorities and stock exchanges, the media, handling labor disputes, representing companies in relevant legal proceedings in relation to various corporate misconduct matters, such as quality falsification issues by manufacturing companies, financial fraud issues, etc. Jun has experience as a member of an investigation committee on corporate misconduct. Jun was previously seconded to a global trading company, and he has extensive experience in handling cross-border corporate crisis management matters and establishing global compliance programs. Jun is also a partner in our energy and natural resources practice, where he mainly advises utility companies, including providing advice on domestic and overseas investments, contracts, regulations, and disputes in relation to energy and natural resources.

Tomoki’s practice covers various corporate crisis management matters such as product defects, breach of industrial regulations including GMP, misleading representations of products, divulging confidential information, window-dressing, misrepresentation of financial statements, insider trading, antitrust (bid rigging, price cartels, and abuse of dominant position), bribery, and misconduct by executives and employees. He provides tailored legal services (investigation, creating a relapse prevention plan, defending against criminal and administrative investigations, public relations, handling the related civil, criminal and administrative litigation, etc.) in a timely and flexible manner. He also has advised many companies in building effective whistle blowing systems and anti-bribery compliance programs, and has assisted with due diligence procedures from a compliance perspective.
After a secondment to a South Korean law firm from 2016 to 2017, he supports South Korean clients on their expansion and business development strategies in Japan.

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. 

Hiroshi Yagi specializes in corporate crisis management cases, a form of white collar criminal defense cases, where he has engaged in factual investigations, negotiated and communicated with various parties including relevant authorities, mass media, investors, business partners and consumers, and developed preventative measures.
 
 Hiroshi Yagi has handled various litigations, including those which follow crisis management cases. He has also advised on the establishment of effective compliance programs as well as various general corporate matters.

Takako has substantial experience in matters involving improper quality control practices, misappropriation of trade secrets, and employee fraud. She previously worked at the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission of Japan (2014-2017), and draws on that experience when handling violations of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, such as insider trading and violations of disclosure regulations. Her practice areas also include performing investigations and providing comprehensive, tailored solutions for and advice on various issues, including initial responses to the discovery of violations, general shareholders’ meetings, responses to customers, and other matters.

Akira’s main practice areas are crisis management and enterprise compliance, and she has practical experience in internal investigations and formulation of measures to prevent recurrence in a wide range of white-collar crimes, including insider trading, market manipulation, violations of the Anti-trust Act, accounting fraud, and embezzlement and breach of trust.
She has experience being involved in international white collar crime cases, such as international cartel investigations by overseas authorities in Europe and the United States.
She has 5 years of experience working at The Consumer Affairs Agency and was engaged in enforcing the Premiums and Representations Act and the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions. Based on her wealth of experience, she provides practical advice for clients from the viewpoint of prevention in order to comply with these laws.

Kenta’s primary practice area is corporate crisis management. He draws on experience gained while seconded to a major domestic securities company, studying in the United States, and working for the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission of Japan to inform his handling of alleged violations of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, such as insider trading, market manipulation, and violations of disclosure regulations, as well as managing foreign investigations and interacting with regulatory authorities. He also handles general disputes, with a focus on litigation involving claims against officers and employees arising from corporate scandals, securities litigation, and shareholder derivative litigation. He has significant experience with transactional and corporate law, including M&A transactions, venture businesses, IPOs, and shareholder meetings. He is a member of the Taiwan practice team and has dealt with compliance matters and M&A transactions in and involving Taiwan.

My main practice area is corporate crisis management.
After working on a number of corporate crisis management cases at Nishimura & Asahi, I moved to the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office where I handled various types of economic crimes, such as fraud, embezzlement, breach of trust, intellectual property infringement, professional negligence, and computer crime, as a public prosecutor. I then returned to Nishimura & Asahi and have continued to deal with corporate crisis management cases.
Based on my experience as a public prosecutor and as an attorney, I provide my clients specialized advice on general and white-collar crimes.
In addition, I have extensive experience in internal investigations, cooperation with formal requests from Japanese investigative authorities, disciplinary actions against employees involved in illegal activities, lawsuits against legal entities or persons who engaged in criminal conduct, investigative committees, compliance, bribery, product accidents, inspection fraud/quality fraud, cartels and bid rigging, trade secrets, whistleblower protection, fraudulent accounting, and violations of various laws and regulations.

Yusuke Suzuki has extensive experience in handling corporate crisis management matters across a variety of industries and legal disciplines.
The wide array of corporate scandals he has handled involve issues such as bribery, bid-rigging/cartels, violations of the Subcontracting Law, quality fraud, trade secret infringement/information leaks, accounting irregularities, insider trading, harassment, and industrial accidents; when dealing with such complex matters, he draws upon his experience as a news reporter to strategically collaborate with not only legal and compliance departments, but also public relations departments.
In the area of crisis communication, his comprehensive support covers timely disclosures, preparation of releases, preparation of anticipatory questions and answers, advising on media responses (individual interviews, press conferences, background briefings, etc.), and advising on countermeasures against slanderous remarks found on the Internet and SNS. On a frequent basis, he provides a wide range of advice, including on the development of crisis management public relations manuals and misconduct publicity standards, mock press conference training, and legal checks of public-relations-related tasks.
When carrying out fact-finding and cause analysis of corporate scandals, Yusuke Suzuki applies his journalistic perspective to go beyond superficial cause analysis and delve into the “real causes,” such as the industry structure and organizational climate. He then takes the lead in the planning and implementation of various measures, such as internal and external messages from top management, formulation of corporate philosophies, workshops for different levels of management, and employee awareness surveys, in order to ensure the effective implementation of recurrence prevention measures, which often involve making changes to the organizational climate and the awareness of executives and employees.
In addition to his proven track record of success in handling legal cases, Yusuke Suzuki also regularly delivers seminars and publishes writings on crisis management with respect to both contingency and peacetime situations. He is widely known for his original and practical seminars and his hands-on, in-house training programs on crisis communication and organizational climate reform.

He mainly handles cyber security. As a cyber security analyst at the National Police Agency, he had been engaged in investigations and research, such as analysis of cyber attacks, for over 10 years.
He advises companies on cases involving crisis management, scandals, and various cyber incidents. Recently, he has handled many security incidents within companies, including ransomware, personal data breaches, and internal crimes.