Our Lawyers

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Managing Partner

Keishi Yoshikawa

吉川 景司

Established Yoshikawa Law Firm after serving as a Partner at Uryu & Itoga Law Firm.
The primary clientele includes major corporations in the IT, finance, healthcare/pharmaceutical, and various manufacturing sectors. Engages in M&A, domestic and international IPO support, and organizational structure establishment. Additionally, handles advertising and labeling, personal information and data protection, regulatory authority response, labor and employment, crisis management upon the occurrence or discovery of misconduct, and other business-related dispute resolutions.
Furthermore, drawing on his background in the sciences, he handles, as both an attorney and a patent attorney, disputes and litigation related to intellectual property and trade secrets, as well as various design-related issues such as trademarks, designs, and copyrights.
Selected publications in intellectual property: "Copyrightability of Works of Applied Art" (Business Law Journal, January 2017); "Method for Determining the Inventor" (Business Law Journal, September 2016); "Intellectual Property System in the Russian Federation" (JCA Journal, October 2015).

Qualifications: Attorney at Law and Patent Attorney

Languages: Japanese・English
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Counsel

Shoichi Hara

原 彰一

After serving as a judge for approximately 15 years, presiding over numerous cases at the Tokyo and Chiba District Courts and other courts, he transitioned to the private practice of law and joined this firm.
During his time as a judge, he handled a wide range of cases, including civil litigation such as commercial, labor, medical malpractice and construction cases and other specialized litigation, labor arbitration, bankruptcy, civil enforcement and provisional remedies, family law, and criminal and juvenile cases. Drawing on this experience, he provides highly effective resolution strategies that anticipate the outcome of litigation from a court’s perspective.
He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. As a visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a professor in the International Cooperation Division of the National Research Institute of Legal Affairs at the Ministry of Justice, he engaged in overseas research and provided legal system development support to countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
In areas such as litigation and dispute resolution, labor law, response to scandals and crisis management, inheritance, wills, and estate division, as well as international disputes, he works closely with clients to seek the best possible resolution tailored to each case.

Qualifications: Attorney at Law (Japan)

Languages: English, Japanese
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Associate

Shino Sakakibara

榊原 史乃

Having served as in-house counsel for a manufacturing company and worked at a law firm specializing in Chinese legal affairs, she joined the Yoshikawa Law Firm. She provides legal advice to clients, primarily major corporations, focusing on labor law, industry-specific legislation, security and trade control, and foreign investment regulations. As well as assisting with the launch of new businesses, supporting negotiations with foreign companies and helping overseas companies to enter the Japanese market, she handles dispute resolution and litigation in the business sector. She also coordinates the initial response to corporate crises, such as investigations into trade secret leaks and harassment cases.

Qualifications: Attorney at Law

Languages: Japanese・Chinese・English
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Associate

Makiko Nagai

永井 万紀子

Joined Yoshikawa Law Firm after practicing at Uryu & Itoga and Nozomi Sogo Attorneys at Law.

Primary areas of practice include the Personal Information Protection Act, labor law, and medical advertising regulations, providing broad support for corporate compliance and risk management. Additionally, possesses extensive practical experience in Corporate/M&A (specifically labor due diligence), crisis management, litigation/dispute resolution, and competition/antitrust law. Provides consistent and comprehensive legal advice ranging from preventive measures during normal operations to emergency response.

Qualifications: Attorney at Law

Languages: Japanese・English
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Associate

Hideyuki Idenawa

出縄 英行

After serving as a judge for approximately nine years, during which he heard and decided a large number of cases, Mr. Idenawa turned to private practice and joined Yoshikawa Law Firm.

As a judge, he handled cases across a wide range of fields: civil litigation including corporate and labor disputes, insolvency, civil execution and provisional remedies, family cases such as estate division and divorce, and criminal and juvenile cases.

During his secondment to the Ministry of Justice, he served as a litigation attorney in the Litigation Bureau, acting in a role comparable to outside counsel for the State, and engaged in preventive-justice support for government ministries and agencies.

Drawing on a judge's ability to analyze evidence and facts with precision and to foresee how litigation will unfold, together with the insight into dispute prevention and dealings with the authorities gained at the Ministry of Justice, he works on corporate disputes, labor disputes, misconduct response and other crisis management matters. His support is not limited to litigation after a dispute has arisen: from the first signs of a problem, he assists clients consistently through initial response, fact investigation, analysis of legal risk and formulation of a resolution strategy, pursuing solutions that are genuinely effective for his clients.

Qualifications: Attorney at Law

Languages: English, Japanese
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Associate

Daisuke Yamamoto

山本 大介

Joined Yoshikawa Law Firm after practicing at Uryu & Itoga.

Possesses extensive experience across a broad spectrum of general corporate legal affairs, handling diverse domestic and international cases. Areas of expertise include Corporate & M&A, International Legal Affairs, Crisis Management, Litigation & Dispute Resolution, Financial Regulation and Fintech, Labor & Employment, Competition & Antitrust, and Sports Law.

Qualifications: Attorney at Law

Languages: Japanese・English
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Associate

Ryo Yabumoto

籔本 凌

After working at Mori Hamada & Matsumoto (one of Japan’s Big Four law firms) and serving on secondment at Nippon Steel Corporation, he joined Yoshikawa Law Firm. He handles a wide range of corporate legal matters, with a focus on intellectual property and IT law, as well as labor law.
In addition to his involvement in corporate legal matters at a major law firm, he possesses practical experience working in the legal department of a business corporation. He provides practical legal services tailored to the specific circumstances of each company, ranging from day-to-day preventive legal work to dispute resolution, internal investigations, and handling of corporate scandals. He also handles sports law, startup support, and general civil matters, offering flexible support tailored to each client’s business operations and challenges.

Qualifications: Attorney at Law

Languages: Japanese
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Associate

Noritake Ito

伊藤 憲武

Joined Yoshikawa Law Firm after gaining extensive experience at Rakuten Group, Inc. and T&K Partners.
With a strong background as in-house counsel, possesses deep expertise in legal issues surrounding IT services, including competition law, consumer protection laws (such as the Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations), personal information protection, and disclosure requests for sender information. Has a proven track record of navigating the complexities of launching multiple new services, as well as handling matters related to the Travel Agency Act and payment-related regulations.
In addition to such IT sector expertise, provides comprehensive legal solutions across a broad range of areas, including corporate law, M&A, shareholder activism response, international legal affairs, crisis management, litigation and dispute resolution, and tax audit representation.

Qualifications: Attorney at Law

Languages: English, Japanese

Our Team

Yoshikawa Law Firm brings together lawyers with diverse backgrounds, each utilizing their specialized expertise to work as a unified team in solving client challenges. We constantly stay updated with the latest laws and precedents to provide practical and valuable legal services.