As of April 1, 2013, Masahiro Murakami, a professor at Seikei University and a professor emeritus at Hitotsubashi University (formerly a professor at the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy at Hitotsubashi University), has joined Mori Hamada & Matsumoto as a special counsel.

After serving as the director of the Compliance and Surveillance Office of the Investigation Department at the Japan Fair Trade Commission and under other titles, Professor Murakami was involved in education and research in the area of competition law for 23 years and left behind a number of research achievements. In addition, he also assumed various public roles, such as membership in the Anti-monopoly Council, and made significant contributions to the development of competition policies in Japan.

In the firm's Competition/Antitrust Practice Group, lawyers with experience in international practices and service at the Japan Fair Trade Commission play a central role in providing legal services in the midst of stricter enforcement of laws by competition authorities in many countries.

The firm will continue striving to provide more thorough legal services in the area of competition law in the future.

I am pleased to inform you that I have just joined Mori Hamada & Matsumoto.

After finishing my legal apprenticeship, I worked as a lawyer for 8 years, and then worked at several organizations, including the General Secretariat of the Japan Fair Trade Commission for 7 years, Yokohama National University for 12 years, and Hitotsubashi University for 11 years. I retired from Hitotsubashi University at the end of March 2013 upon reaching mandatory retirement age and was granted the title of professor emeritus at Hitotsubashi University.

I also became a professor at Seikei University on April 1, 2013 and will teach antitrust laws at the Law School and the Faculty of Law. At the same time, I rejoined to the Dai-ichi Tokyo Bar Association and became a special counsel at Mori Hamada & Matsumoto. I plan to actively engage in the actual practice of law with the assistance of partners and senior and associate lawyers at the firm.

I feel grateful to have had the opportunity to be a specialist in the area of competition law, which is a rapidly developing academic area both in Japan and overseas, and I will continue to devote myself to the research of antitrust laws and actual legal practice in the area of antitrust law in the future.

Thank you very much for your support.

Masahiro Murakami, April 2013