Ryutaro Nakayama and Yuri Sugano were interviewed at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023 (Davos)

Ryutaro Nakayama specializes in General Corporate and M&A work, and advises clients on a broad range of issues and transactions relating to M&A, Japanese corporate, securities, tax, and merger control laws, and regulations specific to various industries. He is a leading lawyer in the field of competition law in Japan, and possesses a unique set of skills and experience, drawn from his extensive experience handling M&A, corporate, and merger control cases and transactions. He has obtained transaction clearances from competition authorities even where the resulting combined market share exceeded 50% in the relevant markets. He has led Nishimura & Asahi’s Africa Practice Team since its formation in 2014. He has established a strong network of connections with Japanese entrepreneurs and businesses that target the African continent, as well as with leading law firms based in Africa. He has been named a leading lawyer in the fields of Corporate/M&A and/or competition law by various publications, including Chambers Global, Chambers Asia-Pacific, and The Nikkei’s annual rankings of “Most Successful Lawyers.” He was appointed the Managing Partner of Nishimura & Asahi in April 2021.

Yuri is specialized in Restructuring and Insolvency and also Labor Law. Especially, she is well-known in the restructuring market given her outstanding expertise and experience in cross-border restructuring and insolvency cases. She has plenty of experience providing foreign clients with restructuring and business closure of their Japanese subsidiaries. She also supports foreign clients on a wide range of labor issues, including labor disputes, personnel restructuring and general labor law matters on a daily basis. She is actively engaged in diversity and inclusion promotion activities. Utilizing her expertise as a labor-law specialist, as well as her experience as a member of the DE&I Promotion Committee at Nishimura & Asahi and as a director of LLAN (lawyers for LGBT & Allies Network), she has supported clients’ D&I initiatives.