独占禁止法 / 競争法全般

Kozo Kawai has long been called upon for his sector-leading knowledge of non-contentious and contentious antitrust issues, including those relating to M&A transactions, cartels and unilateral behaviour. "Mr Kawai is the doyen of the competition Bar, with an incredible amount of knowledge and experience in the field. He is a true force to be reckoned with whom you want to have on your side," says one client. Madoka Shimada has a strong track record advising on merger filings and antitrust-related issues. One client reports: "She is a very diligent lawyer. She's across all aspects of competition law and handles domestic and international merger control mandates." A further source says: "Ms Shimada is a very knowledgeable, hands-on competition lawyer who can turn around matters which others have given up on."

Kozo Kawai leads the competition team at NISHIMURA & ASAHI, which includes five other partners, two counsel and 45 associates. The firm is working on an active docket of behavioural matters in industries such as construction and pharmaceuticals, although details of this work are confidential. On the merger side, the team advised NAVER on the integration of its subsidiary LINE with Z Holdings, which is Japan’s largest-ever IT company merger. The group also advised leasing company MUL on its merger with Hitachi Capital Corporation, which was cleared by the JFTC in less than four months without remedies. As well as handling the Japanese portion of the deal, Nishimura & Asahi also acted as lead counsel coordinating merger filings in the US, the EU, Turkey and Indonesia. In another successful global effort, the team advised Honda on its plans to merge several auto parts companies into one aggregated supplier with Hitachi. The firm secured clearance for that deal without conditions in Japan and multiple other countries across Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additionally, the firm helped KKR and Rakuten obtain Phase I clearance without remedies for their acquisition of shares in Japanese supermarket group Seiyu from Walmart.