Akihiro Hironaka

Akihiro’s experience covers product liability, contract claims, mass tort claims, and tax disputes in a variety of areas, with particular focus on the pharmaceutical and automotive industries. He has handled disputes involving or arising from M&A transactions, construction sites in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, and termination of cross-border distribution agreements. He has achieved significant results in international arbitrations, including emergency arbitration proceedings under the rules of the ICC, SIAC, AAA-ICDR, and JCAA. In addition, he advises clients in connection with U.S. civil actions, including class actions and product liability litigation, and with Japanese judicial assistance for foreign court proceedings.

Akihiro has been a partner in the dispute resolution group at Nishimura & Asahi since 2007. Prior to that, he served as a Japanese district court judge, from 1998 until 2000, and worked at Arnold & Porter (Washington, D.C.) from 2003 until 2004.

He has been admitted to practice law in Japan since 1996 (voluntarily deregistered in 1998 and readmitted in 2000), and in New York since 2004. He has been a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb) since 2019.

He is the author of various books and articles on litigation and international arbitration, including Yasuhei Taniguchi et al. eds., Civil Procedure in Japan (contributor, 3rd ed., Juris Publishing, 2018), “Is the Opt-in System Doomed to Fail? An Experience with the New Japanese Legislation on Collective Redress”, Dispute Resolution International, Vol. 14 No. 1 (co-author, 2020), “Exploring Practicality: Using Japanese Courtrooms for Evidence Gathering in International Arbitration”, Dispute Resolution International, Vol. 9 No. 2 (2015), and International Arbitration and Corporate Strategy (in Japanese, co-editor, Yuhikaku, 2014).