Mori Hamada & Matsumoto

Managing Partners: Koichiro Iida, Gaku Ishiwata, Koji Toshima, Hiroki Aoyama

Number of Partners: 193

Number of Lawyers: 751

Languages:Bahasa (Malay and Indonesian), English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Burmese, Thai, Vietnamese

Firm Overview 

Mori Hamada & Matsumoto (MHM) is one of the largest full-service Tokyo-headquartered international law firms. A significant proportion of the firm’s work is international in nature, representing clients in cross-border transactions, litigation and other dispute resolution proceedings.

Offices  

MHM has offices in Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Takamatsu and Sapporo in addition to its Tokyo headquarters. The firm has very strong full-service local law practices in Bangkok (Chandler MHM Limited) and Yangon (Myanmar Legal MHM Limited) and it is expanding its range of local law services in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Jakarta (ATD Law in association with Mori Hamada & Matsumoto) and Manila (Tayag Ngochua & Chu, a member firm of Mori Hamada & Matsumoto). It also has offices in Singapore (MHM ASEAN hub), Shanghai and Beijing. In September 2023, the firm opened an office in New York through which it will further bolster its relationships with peer firms and clients in the US and the broader Americas regions, and provide them with efficient access to MHM’s Japan and ASEAN network.

The firm has strong working relationships with leading firms throughout Asia (as well as in Europe and the Americas), which enables it to work for its clients as a single, integrated team.

The Firm’s Professionals  

MHM has over 750 lawyers and 660 support staff including patent attorneys, licensed tax accountants, legal assistants and translators. Its senior lawyers include highly respected practitioners and leaders from the Japanese and international legal community, including prominent law professors from the University of Tokyo, and a former Prosecutor-General from the Public Prosecutors Office. The firm also has experienced lawyers qualified in the US, England and Wales, the People’s Republic of China, Bangladesh, the Philippines, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and more.

Main Areas of Practice 

Banking and Finance; Capital Markets; Capital Markets: J-REITs; Competition/Antitrust; Corporate/M&A; Crisis Management; Dispute Resolution (Domestic and International); Employment; Fintech; Insurance; Intellectual Property; International Trade; Investment Funds; Life Sciences; Projects and Energy; Real Estate; Restructuring/Insolvency; Structured Finance/Securitisation; Tax; Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT); and Wealth Management.

Recent Representations 

◆Advising global private equity giant KKR in its take-private acquisition of Hitachi Transport System at an estimated deal value of USD 4.63 billion

◆Advising UBS Asset Management in the sale of its stakes in Mitsubishi Corp.-UBS Realty Inc. to the global private equity KKR in a deal valued at USD 2 billion

◆Advising telecommunication giant NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone) in the merger of its international business with NTT DATA. The combined NTT and NTT DATA will have revenues of around USD 26.2 billion

◆Advising Mizuho Financial Group, the leading Japanese financial services group, in its acquisition of 19.99% stake in Rakuten Securities from Rakuten Group for USD 552 million

◆Advising global private equity firm Lone Star Funds (through one of its affiliates) in its acquisition of SENQCIA Corporation, a leading structural building materials company in Japan

◆Japan Post Holdings Co., Ltd., Japan Post Bank Co., Ltd., and Japan Post Insurance Co., Ltd. In their JPY1.43 trillion concurrent global initial public offerings and global follow-on offerings

◆Integral Corporation, in its JPY20billion global initial public offering in 2023

◆NTT Finance Corporation in its JPY1 trillion senior notes offering and USD7 billion senior notes and EUR2 billion senior notes offering

◆Nippon Prologis REIT, Inc. in its JPY25 billion global follow on offering in 2023

◆Enex Infrastructure Investment Corporation in its JPY5 billion and JPY12 billion follow on offerings in 2023

◆Advised Mizuho Securities Co., Ltd. (MHSC) in respect to the financing for JTOWER Inc. based on the economic value and cash flow realised from telecommunications towers acquired from NTT DOCOMO, Inc., through a whole business securitisation scheme arranged by MHSC

◆The Japanese Bankers Association and Japan Syndication and Loan-trading Association in connection with the permanent cessation of LIBOR and Euro Yen TIBOR

◆Represents Toshiba Corporation in lawsuits brought by former or current shareholders in tort alleging “improper” disclosure of financial information in past years

◆Acquisition of Otemachi Place (East Tower) for JPY 436 billion, which is the largest real estate transaction in Japan

◆Represents Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd., which operates 7-Eleven and other convenience stores in Japan, in its reorganization whereby Seven Card Service Co., Ltd. was transferred to Seven Bank, Ltd.

◆Provided assistance to the Independent Investigation Committee, which was established by ADK Holdings Inc., concerning the bribery charges against its president in relation to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games

◆Represented the founder of Sazaby League, Ltd. and another company in a first-ever tax dispute regarding the fair value of class stock and obtained a National Tax Tribunal decision in their favour, ordering the rescission in full of the tax authority’s disposition for taxation of at least JPY 8 billion

◆Represents Japan Post in famous class-action types of litigation under the Employment Contract Act, which were filed with Sapporo, Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima, Kochi, Fukuoka and Nagasaki District Courts. Around 180 employees with fixed-term employment contract are plaintiffs

◆Marelli Holdings Co., Ltd. and its subsidiaries, one of the world’s leading independent suppliers to the automotive industry with around 160 subsidiaries in more than 20 countries, in debt/capital restructuring through the combination of out-of-court corporate workout (Turnaround ADR) and in-court insolvency proceedings (simplified rehabilitation proceedings)

◆Sawai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., one of the leading generic pharmaceutical companies in Japan, in its investigation by the special investigation committee

◆Provides total legal support to Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO)* with respect to its project assisting Japanese companies’ China business from China’s economic security/export controls perspectives

*JETRO, established pursuant to JETRO Act, is a government-related organization that works to promote mutual trade and investment between Japan and the rest of the world

◆Represents Mizuho Bank, MUFG Bank, and the Development Bank of Japan in project finance for Kitakyushu-Hibikinada Offshore Wind Farm

◆Advising Fortitude Re in $4 Billion annuity reinsurance transaction with Taiyo Life Insurance

◆Advising international law firms and clients in relation to disputes and compliance matters in Myanmar including providing advice and, in the case of disputes, expert opinions, on Myanmar law (including, recently, Myanmar contract law, foreign exchange regulations, telecommunications regulations, oil and gas law, insolvency law and enforcement of international arbitral awards)

◆Advised Myanmar Agro Exchange Public Company Limited in listing on the Yangon Stock Exchange. This is the first listing to be approved in Myanmar since 2020 and the eighth overall

◆Advised Kintetsu Group Holdings Co. Ltd. on its JPY 170 billion acquisition of Kintetsu World Express, Inc. a Japan based international forwarding company, through tender offer and subsequent procedure to make it a wholly owned subsidiary

◆Represented Japanese company Paidy Inc. as the target of PayPal, Inc., which acquired all of the shares of Paidy Inc., a, by way of share transfer, having already worked closely with the client to successfully support its growth to become a unicorn startup

◆Representation of a numerous number of founders and their families of Japanese listed companies and major non-listed companies in their private matters

◆Advised Mizuho Bank, Ltd. On a US$131 million investment in a leading Vietnamese fintech company, Online Mobile Services Joint Stock Company, operator of the leading fintech app MoMo