Tax: Bengoshi

Our firm has approximately 530 Japanese lawyers (bengoshi), 50 foreign lawyers, tax counsel (zeirishi) and other professionals, is the largest law firm in Japan, and its practice areas cover all aspects of international and domestic business and corporate activities. 

We are particularly renowned for our expertise in dealing with various types of tax controversies, exemplified by our unparalleled track record of victories before the Japanese courts. In the past, tax controversies and disputes were not an area of practice that business law firms like ourselves would deal with in Japan. However, after the two giant landmark cases, the Tokyo & Osaka proforma tax lawsuits (banking business tax lawsuits) and the IBJ (Industrial Bank of Japan) tax lawsuit, Japanese tax controversies and disputes have dramatically changed. In Japan, it is very difficult to prevail in tax lawsuits against the tax authorities, which is exemplified by the fact that the prevailing success rates for taxpayers are, even including a partially favourable decision, only approximately 5-10 percent. Even under such circumstances, our firm has achieved tremendous results in many tax litigations. Our firm has been regarded as a leading firm in the area of tax litigation.