Mr Koichiro Sato > Abe, Ikubo & Katayama > Tokyo, Japan > Lawyer Profile

Abe, Ikubo & Katayama
Fukuoka Building 9th Floor
2-8-7 Yaesu, Chuo-ku
Tokyo 104-0028
Japan

Work Department

Legal Division

Position

Associate

Career

Koichiro specializes in international legal matters and handles insolvency/bankruptcy, litigation, international commercial arbitration, and transactional work. He has experience in significant bankruptcy proceedings, high-stakes litigation, and major IP licensing transactions involving international parties. He is one of the youngest members of the Japanese Association of Turnaround Professionals,  the only private operator certified to provide mediation services for Turnaround ADR, an out-of-court debt adjustment procedure utilized by major Japanese corporations since 2007. He is also one of the youngest lawyers to be listed as a “third-party support specialist” (daisansha shine senmonka) under the “Guidelines for Out-of-Court Workouts for SMEs,” another out-of-court debt adjustment procedure utilized by Japanese SMEs.

After passing the Japanese CPA examination, Koichiro began his career as an audit professional at KPMG Azsa LLC. He is licensed as an attorney at law in Japan, an attorney and counselor at law in New York and California, and a solicitor in England and Wales.

Koichiro spent most of his childhood in Canada and later spent two years in the United States studying at Stanford Law School and working as a visiting foreign attorney at a Chicago-based law firm. He is bi-lingual and bi-cultural and uniquely well-positioned to serve international clients as a link to doing business in Japan.

Languages

Japanese, English

Memberships

International Arbitration Committee, Dai-ichi Tokyo Bar Association

Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (MCIArb)

Japanese Association of Turnaround Professionals

Education

(2020) LLM in Law, Science and Technology, Stanford Law School
– Gerald Gunther Prize for Outstanding Performance in IP: The Business & Law of Technology & Patent Licensing
– Pro Bono Distinction

(2012) Master’s Degree in Management of Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology Graduate School of Innovation Management

(2010) LL.B., Keio University