August 19, 2013 Firm News

Opening of Fukuoka Office

Fukuoka is one of the principal cities of the western part of Japan and is recognized as an important market for the Japanese economy, as well as a sales and manufacturing hub for major Japanese companies. In recent times, an increasing number of companies based in western Japan have expanded their businesses into other countries in the Asian region, and business activity in western Japan has grown in significance and become more diversified.

By opening an office in Fukuoka, which will officially start operations on October 1, 2013, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto aims to enhance the services it provides to its many existing clients located in western Japan and also to expand its practice in this important region.

The Fukuoka office will work closely with the firm’s other offices and make full use of all the firm’s resources and expertise in order to assist clients with the full range of services provided by the firm, including litigation and other forms of dispute resolution, as well as assistance in transactional and regulatory practice areas including domestic and cross-border mergers & acquisitions (especially those involving businesses in South and Southeast Asia), reorganizations, finance, intellectual property, real estate, labor matters and corporate governance.

The Fukuoka office will initially be led by two of the firm’s partners, Masatake Yone and Atsunori Nobukuni, both of whom are originally from the Kyushu area and have extensive experience in general corporate matters, dispute resolution, mergers & acquisitions and corporate restructurings.

The Fukuoka office will be the first new office opened by the firm after the successful launch of an office in Singapore in 2012. The firm’s practice throughout Asia has continued to expand rapidly after the initial opening of offices in Beijing and Shanghai several years ago. The Fukuoka office is strategically positioned to work in collaboration with all the firm’s offices on cross-border matters involving Japan and other countries in the Asian region, and the firm will continue to encourage lawyers working in all offices to work collaboratively in order to provide the best legal services for clients.

(A legal professional corporation will be incorporated at the time of the opening of the Fukuoka office.)

August 2013
Mori Hamada & Matsumoto

Resident Lawyers at Fukuoka Office

The following attorneys at the firm’s Fukuoka office provide support for companies located in western Japan.

Masatake Yone - Partner

yone

 TEL

:+81-3-5223-7710

Email

masatake.yone@mhmjapan.com

Masatake Yone has been a partner at the firm since 1989 and handles various corporate legal affairs both inside and outside Japan. He is a pioneer in the area of M&A in Japan and has handled numerous important global acquisition transactions since the years of Japan’s bubble economy in the 1980s. He has developed and adopted new techniques in major domestic bankruptcy cases, such as prepackaged civil rehabilitation proceedings and bulk sales. He has also handled a number of rehabilitation proceedings in the Kyushu area, including rehabilitation proceedings for the Fukuoka Dome. Apart from his work at the firm, he has served as a lecturer at the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy of Hitotsubashi University and as a lecturer in the University of Tokyo Executive Management Program, and while serving as Acting Chairperson of the Committee on the Recovery and Reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake established by Dai-ichi, Daini, and Tokyo Bar Associations, he has been engaged in activities that support victims of the earthquake disaster.


Bar Admissions
admitted in Japan, 1981; New York, 1987
Daini Tokyo Bar Association

Background

  • LaSalle High School (1973)
  • The University of Tokyo (LL.B., 1973)
  • Cornell Law School (LL.M., 1985)
  • with Sullivan & Cromwell, New York (1985-1986)
  • with Freshfields, London (1986-1987)
  • Lecturer at Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy, Hitotsubashi University (2000-2004)
  • Lecturer in the University of Tokyo Executive Management Program (2008-2012)

Activities

  • Vice President of Daini Tokyo Bar Association (2011-)
  • Acting Chairperson of the Committee on the Recovery and Reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake established by Dai-ichi, Daini, and Tokyo Bar Associations (2011-)

 

Atsunori Nobukuni - Partner

nobukuni

 TEL

:+81-3-5220-1809

Email

atsunori.nobukuni@mhmjapan.com

Atsunori Nobukuni was born in Fukuoka. He is well versed in cases dealing with litigation and dispute resolution, insolvency and business turnarounds, M&A and corporate restructuring, among other areas. In the field of litigation and dispute resolution, he handles corporate legal affairs, including provision of day-to-day legal advice, resolution of disputes between companies, debt collection, matters relating to real estate, labor disputes, and shareholder meetings. In the area of bankruptcy and business turnarounds, he has handled numerous cases of voluntary liquidation (turnaround ADR, small and medium enterprise revitalization support councils, etc.) and legal arrangements (civil rehabilitation, corporate reorganization, bankruptcy, etc.). He also increasingly handles many M&A transactions and supports many Japanese companies starting business in Asian countries.


Bar Admissions
admitted in Japan, 2001
Tokyo Bar Association
Fukuoka Bar Association (scheduled to be registered in 2013)

Background

  • Fukuoka Municipal Josei Junior High School (1992)
  • LaSalle High School (1995)
  • The University of Tokyo (LL.B., 1999)

 

Dai Katagiri - Associate

katagiri

 TEL

:+81-3-6266-8774

Email

dai.katagiri@mhmjapan.com

Dai Katagiri joined the firm after finishing his legal apprentice training course in Fukuoka. Since joining the firm, he has been involved in a wide range of corporate legal affairs, with a focus on dispute resolutions (litigation, mediation, arbitration) and business turnaround and insolvency cases (corporate reorganization, civil rehabilitation, acting as filing attorney for bankruptcy proceedings, etc.). Using his experience studying in the United States while in college, he also handles global dispute resolution cases.


Bar Admissions
admitted in Japan, 2009
Daini Tokyo Bar Association
Fukuoka Bar Association (scheduled to be registered in 2013)

Background

  • Toko Gakuen High School (2001)
  • Waseda University (LL.B., 2005)
  • The University of Tokyo, School of Law (2008)

  • To profile page

Access to Fukuoka Office

Address
9th Floor, Tenjin Twin Building
1-6-8 Tenjin, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka
810-0001

Access
(from Exit “E8” of Tenjin Chikagai (underground shopping mall))

  • 1 minute walk from Nishitetsu-Fukuoka (Tenjin) Sta. on the Nishitetsu Tenjin-Omuta Line
  • 3 minute walk from Tenjin Sta. on the Kuko Line (subway)
  • 3 minute walk from Tenjin-Minami Sta. on the Nanakuma Line (subway)

Contact Details
Tel: +81-92-739-8140 (from October 1, 2013)
Fax: +81-92-739-8141 (from October 1, 2013)

*Until September 30, 2013, please use the following contact details.

Tel: +81-3-5220-1809
(Tokyo Office; direct line to Atsunori Nobukuni)
Fax: +81-3-5220-1709
(Tokyo Office; direct line to Atsunori Nobukuni)

MAP