Minoru Sawaguchi was ranked 5th and Shin Kikuchi was ranked 9th overall in Japan in a special feature article titled "Business Lawyer Rankings 2010" published in the September 13 edition of the Japanese-language Nikkei Business Journal. Other lawyers who featured in the rankings were Yoshio Iteya, who ranked 2nd in the international and foreign affairs practice area; Yutaka Miyoshi, who ranked 2nd in the intellectual property and patent practice area; Chisako Takaya, who ranked 5th in the labor management practice area; and Ryota Miura and Gaku Ishiwata, who ranked joint 4th in the M&A and corporate restructuring practice area.