Legal Practice in the Agri-Food Business: Legal Strategies to Support Sustainability and Innovation in Food and Agriculture

Yasunari Sugiyama is a partner in the firm's Asset Finance Group and Agri-Food Practice Group. In the finance area, his major and unique areas include financing of movables (lease, installment purchase and secured loan), supports for overseas expansion by financial institutions, acquisition finance and domestic and cross-border real estate transactions. In particular, he has extensive experience in proposing and implementing business plans and schemes available for each target jurisdiction taking into consideration the specific civil and commercial laws and financial regulations regarding the movables and real estates in Asian, European and North and South American countries and their entity-based and geographical applicability and coverage in terms of the overseas expansion of Japanese financial institutions. Further, in the agri-food area, he aims to provide legal services for the purposes of the introduction of smart agriculture, business expansion and diversification of financing sources, development and scaling of new business such as solar-sharing and onland aquaculture business, in each case while organizing the various laws and regulations applicable to each process of value chains of the agricultural, forestry and fishery business.

Based on his experience working for the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, he provides a wide range of regulatory compliance, policy advocacy and rulemaking, and new business and business development advice, as well as contract-related support in the agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and food sectors. He also provides strategic support for mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, business succession, start-up financing, intellectual property strategies, and international transactions. The Agri-Food Practice was "Commended" at the FT Innovative Lawyers Asia-Pacific Awards 2023 for its innovative activities.

Masaki Hosaka has expertise in General Corporate and M&A law. He was the Managing Partner of the firm from early 2011 to March 2021, and Chairman of The Management Board from April 2021 to March 2024. He is now an student in the Bachelor’s program at the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Education.

In addition to seven years' experience in Vietnam, Taro also has experience in working as in-house counsel for a major trading company. He has strong expertise in cross-border M&A/joint ventures, real estate development, labor, compliance, crisis management deals, and international transactions. In recent years, the scope of his work has expanded to include Turkey and other Middle Eastern countries. He is also a member of the Agrifood Practice Team.

He graduated from the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Frontier Sciences (M.S.) in 2004. Due to his technical background, he advises clients on various technology matters, including artificial intelligence (AI), generative AI, data protection, data utilization, medical field, healthcare, software, systems, cloud computing, OSS, information technology, DX, and quantum computing. His time at the Akira Hirose laboratory at the University of Tokyo provided him with deep knowledge of artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI because he studied neural networks, which is the main technology of artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI. He successfully passed the Japanese patent attorney examination in 2002, and he has been admitted in Japan since 2009. He advises clients on various intellectual property law matters due to his technical background and knowledge as a Japanese patent attorney. Regarding dispute matters related to intellectual property, he has handled patent litigation, litigation regarding employee inventions and trade secret litigation, among others. He especially has considerable experience in trade secret disputes, and he provides a support service on countermeasures against divulging trade secrets, including drafting company regulations, data management practice, and employee training.

Having studied Master Food Law & Regulatory Affairs at Wageningen University in the Netherlands (known as the best university in the Agri-Food area) and having worked at one of the most innovative food tech startups in Europe, Hideki is an expert in various business areas of the Agri-Food chain, such as the decarbonization of the farming process, the implementation of smart farming, and the development of novel food. His practice includes, but is not limited to, regulatory, contract, and business development support in these areas, as well as involvement in rule-making and the lobbying process as an industry leader. In addition, he builds bridges and enhances collaboration between the Japanese and global food tech community on regular basis as an industry professional.