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Supporting Community: Saitama Prefectural Urawa Girls' Upper Secondary School Study Session, Career Guidance, and Roundtable Discussion

Since 2022, the legal education team at Nishimura & Asahi (GKJ) has been providing ongoing support for an inquiry-based cross-disciplinary study by second-year students.

In 2025, 13 lawyers—Kazuyoshi Furusumi, Shigeru Sasaki, Takeshi Nemoto, Mariko Mimura, Takahiro Kato, Shiori Akiyama, Shiori Komatsu, Yuki Matsumoto, Megumi Miyano, Sakito Muraishi, Haruka Sakaki, Mayu Shindo, and Haruka Sugimoto—provided support for this program throughout the year.

On June 10, some of the above-mentioned lawyers visited the school to provide face-to-face career guidance at a roundtable discussion.

During the career guidance session, moderated by Tokyo partner Takeshi Nemoto, Tokyo associates Haruka Sakaki, Mayu Shindo, and Shiori Akiyama shared their experiences on why they decided to become lawyers, their paths to becoming one, next steps in a law career, the work they do, and the fulfilling aspects of their jobs.

The attendees also split into small groups and answered detailed questions from students. Discussions covered issues like how to become a legal professional and, from students who already planned to pursue a career in law, how to become a lawyer that specializes in a particular field.

After the roundtable discussions, students shared comments, such as:

“I did not know that lawyers were involved in such a wide range of practices.” 
“I learned that there are many different paths for a lawyer.” 
“This career guidance and the roundtable discussions have motivated me.”

We hope this guidance could help the participating students to consider their future careers and help increase the number of women who choose to become legal professionals in Japan.

People

古角 和義

Kaz is a partner in our Corporate practice. He has strong expertise in various M&A transactions including outbound/inbound deals. He is unique given his broad activities throughout his career, such as professional experience in a management consulting firm and a private equity fund, as well as the start-up of our Hanoi office in Vietnam. Leveraging his insights gained from this experience, he always provides clients with tailored services in a timely and flexible manner.

佐々木 秀

Experience in not only large M&A transactions but also mid-small cap M&A transactions, achieving efficiency and considering the internal/business matters within the client, from time being seconded to the legal department in a Japanese investment bank and full-time work in the client office. Experience assisting clients in a wide variety of industries; manufactures, retail, financial institutions, start-ups, etc. Successfully involved in several famous defense cases against hostile takeovers and activism campaigns. Provides legal advice in some crisis management situations and harassment investigations, accounting scandals and other corporate scandals. Such broad experience enables provision of strategic advice on various general corporate matters.

根本 剛史

Takeshi has handled many complex M&A transactions and provides sincere advice to his clients. He has extensive experience in M&A-related disputes, and is well versed in the various issues facing companies with founding family shareholders. In recent years, he has been involved in many cases involving business and human rights, impact investing, and advises companies from the perspective of sustainability. He is also actively involved in pro bono work and is one of the most experienced in Japan.

三村 まり子

Mariko has strong expertise in pharmaceutical industry-focused practices, and she has advised on regulations, compliance, M&A, licensing, etc. She has also been involved in crisis management third-party investigation committees, and gave advice based on her extensive experience and knowledge acquired from her experience as one of the board members and management team of several pharmaceutical companies. She is also actively engaged in pro bono matters and in Diversity & inclusion promotional activities, as well as Business and Human Rights and ESG. She takes a leadership role as a core member of our firm’s D&I Promotion.

加藤 貴裕

Takahiro has been engaged in a wide variety of restructuring cases from out-of-court workouts to judicial bankruptcy proceedings. He has also handled disputes and litigations in relation to both bankruptcy cases and general corporate matters. In each case, his focus is on leading clients in the right direction and ultimately securing optimal solutions for them.

With two years of experience as a secondee to the credit division of one of Japan’s largest banks, he understands how creditors think and act when borrowers face insolvency situations.

He also spent three years in the U.S., attending law school for a year and working as a trainee at a U.S. law firm handling both litigation and M&A cases for two years. Utilizing this experience, he has advised clients in international M&A and other transactions.