Makoto Hayashi joined Mori Hamada & Matsumoto as of August 1, 2022 in the role of special counsel, following his retirement from the position of prosecutor-general in June this year.

Mr. Hayashi has been involved in investigations and trials in his various roles, including his position at the Special Investigation Department of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, and has directed the handling of various criminal cases in his roles as superintending prosecutor of the Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office and prosecutor-general, among others. In addition, Mr. Hayashi has played a central role not only in criminal legislative work but also in prosecution reform as director of the General Affairs Division of the Correction Bureau at the Ministry of Justice, chief of the Public Prosecution Reform Promotion Office of the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office, and director-general of the Criminal Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Justice.

By welcoming Mr. Hayashi as a special counsel, we hope that he will utilize the firm’s resources to share his insights and experience from a broad perspective for the benefit of society, and assist us in contributing to the promotion of public interests and enable us to better respond to the needs of our clients in those areas.

With the addition of Mr. Hayashi to our firm, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto will further endeavor to provide our clients with even more extensive legal services in the areas of corporate criminal law and crisis management.

Message from Mr. Hayashi

Having retired from my position as prosecutor-general on June 24, 2022, I am honored to be joining Mori Hamada & Matsumoto as a special counsel.

Of the more than 39 years since my appointment as a public prosecutor in 1983, excluding the three years I was posted to the Japanese Embassy in France, I have served almost 18 years each in the Public Prosecutors Office and the Ministry of Justice. During that time, I was twice assigned to the Special Investigation Department at the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, where I was involved in investigations such as large-scale bribery and corruption cases and corporate crimes. Thereafter I served as director of the General Affairs Division of the Correction Bureau of the Ministry of Justice from 2003, where I was in charge of penal system reforms following the so-called “Nagoya Prison Incident,” and together with a team including members of the bar association, we completed the first comprehensive revision of the Prison Act in about 100 years. From 2011, as chief of the Public Prosecution Reform Promotion Office of the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office, I pushed for prosecution reforms following a case of evidence tampering by a public prosecutor of the Special Investigation Department at the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office, and in 2016, as director-general of the Criminal Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Justice, I enacted major amendments to laws such as the Code of Criminal Procedure, which included the introduction of audio and video recordings of interrogations, and so-called plea bargaining. In June this year I oversaw the enactment of the first revision of the Penal Code in 115 years, resulting in the consolidation of imprisonment sentences through the abolition of separate sentences for imprisonment with labor and imprisonment without labor, which had been my long-held wish since the time of my appointment as director-general of the Criminal Affairs Bureau. With that mission accomplished, I then retired from my position as prosecutor-general. On reflection, during my limited time as a public prosecutor I feel very fortunate to have been involved in major revisions of the basic laws of criminal law, such as the Prison Act, the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the Penal Code.

As a member of Mori Hamada & Matsumoto I look forward to making the most of my knowledge and experience gained during my career to date, and will do my best to contribute to society in any way I can.

August 2022

Makoto Hayashi, Attorney-at-Law