DE&I Lunch Session in Collaboration With Airbnb (for N&A members)

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.

Mikiko has extensive expertise in project finance for various power projects and other infrastructure projects, including PPP/PFI projects. She has advised on award-winning projects, including the Tokyo International (Haneda) Airport expansion project, awarded “Asia Pacific Airports” at IJGlobal 2017, and the Osaka and New Kansai International Airports privatization project, awarded “Asia Pacific Airports” at IJGlobal 2016. Mikiko also has advised on numerous renewable energy projects in Japan since the early 2000s, and has served as an expert member of several government committees established by the Japanese Government’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Ministry of the Environment, and Agency for Natural Resources with respect to the electricity market in Japan. Mikiko was commended as an “Innovative Practitioner” at the FT Innovative Lawyers Asia-Pacific Awards 2022 for her sustainability efforts, including in relation to diversity and inclusion, pro bono, and renewable energy.

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.

Hudson regularly advises Japanese and non-Japanese clients in large, complex cross-border transactions, including stock acquisitions, asset acquisitions, private equity and venture capital investments, intellectual property agreements, joint ventures and strategic alliances. Clients value his communication skills, both in Japanese and English, and his dedication to producing successful outcomes.

Kayo has been involved in several large-scale domestic M&A, corporate restructuring and start-up transactions. Based on her experience studying in Germany and being seconded to a traditional German corporate law firm, she aims to be agile and responsive to clients' needs with regard to matters in Germany and throughout Europe, where EU law is applicable. She spent approximately four years in Germany, where she not only studied European antitrust law, but also gained practical experience at a local office for more than two years. While on secondment to the Ministry of Justice, she was involved in cases concerning the revised Companies Act of 2020 and the revised Commercial Code, particularly the Maritime Law. She provides support based on her understanding of the theoretical and academic background of the Companies Act and the Commercial Code.