Japan 2023
Supported by the Association of Corporate Counsel
Assistant division director, legal and general affairs division | Chiyoda Corporation
Senior operating officer, general counsel and head of law, patents and compliance in Japan | Bayer Holding
Deputy general counsel, general manager, legal operations unit, legal group | JERA
Director, member of the board, executive officer, group general counsel | Panasonic Holdings Corporation
Executive officer, head of legal and human resources compliance | MiSUMi
Chief legal officer, executive officer | Gibraltar Life Insurance Company
Chief legal officer, Northeast Asia (Japan and Korea) | Air Liquide Japan
Group legal and compliance director | LVMH Moët Hennessy-Louis Vuitton Japan
Senior executive officer, general counsel, and chief data protection officer | JMDC
General manager, legal and intellectual property | Bandai Namco Entertainment
Vice president, executive officer; managing director of legal and intellectual property division; group privacy officer | Sega Sammy Holdings
General counsel and executive officer | JGC Holdings Corporation
General manager, legal department, legal and corporate affairs division | Chiyoda Corporation
Head of compliance and corporate legal department, legal division | Accenture Japan
Chief legal officer, group compliance officer and corporate officer | SoftBank Group Corp.
General manager of the legal department | Sojitz Corporation
Head of legal, Japan | Olympus Corporation
Dual-qualified in both Japan (2000) and New York (2006), Yoshiaki Sakurai’s legal career began with Nishimura & Asahi, where he practiced wide variety of areas including Corporate, M&A, Litigation...
Managing executive officer, general manager of legal division | Mitsui & Co.
Associate general counsel and Japan legal director | Amazon
Angela is a senior international lawyer with more than 28 years’ experience at top global law firms and as general counsel for leading global corporations headquartered in the United States....
General counsel and chief compliance officer, Japan, Australia and New Zealand | Alcon
Anthony joined Alcon Japan in July 2020 as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, Japan and in January 2023, was promoted to also cover Australia and New Zealand. Anthony has...
Director and head of legal, Japan | Abbott
Arshad Karim is Director/Head of Legal, Japan at Abbott Japan LLC since June 2023. Prior to Abbott, he was Director & Associate General Counsel at Twitter for over four years, responsible...
Head of Japan/JPBU ethics and compliance, global ethics and compliance | Takeda
Chika Hirata joined Takeda in June 2018 and is currently the Head of Japan/JPBU Ethics & Compliance. She is in charge of strategic planning and leading global initiatives for global...
Chief legal officer | Square Enix Holdings
Hajime Seki is currently chief legal officer at Square Enix Holdings and leads the global legal and IP team for the Square Enix Holdings Group. He has 30 years of...
Country counsel for Japan | HP Japan
A graduate of the Gould School of Law at the University of Southern California, Hiromi Shiraishi has held positions with established law firms in both the United States and Japan,...
Senior vice president, general counsel and general manager, legal and compliance division | ITOCHU
General manager, HR and legal training department, legal division | Mitsui & Co.
General manager, legal department, administration and CSR division | FURUKAWA Electric
Vice president and executive officer, chief legal officer, general counsel, deputy CRMO, and officer in charge of audit | Hitachi
Senior director, head of legal | Tapestry Japan
Mizuho Uchida is a highly accomplished in-house legal counsel over 18 years of extensive experience in corporate law with the focus on Fashion Laws in Luxury/Retail Business. Mizuho’s proficiency in...
General counsel Japan | HSBC
As general counsel for Japan at HSBC, Naoki Hamada takes on a wide variety of roles for the global banking giant, having ultimate responsibility for legal matters in Japan. In...
Group legal counsel | Johnson Controls - Hitachi Air Conditioning
Vice president, legal and compliance and general counsel | Novo Nordisk
Representative corporate executive officer and general counsel | Oracle Japan
Co-head of Japan legal, executive director and assistant general counsel | JPMorgan Chase & Co
Senior counsel, legal and compliance, Korea and Japan | GE Healthcare Pharma
General counsel, executive vice president, chief operating officer | Dentsu Group
Manager, legal department | Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
Senior counsel, legal | FedEx
Takahisa Shimizu is the senior legal counsel, legal of FedEx Express. Takahisa supported the integration of FedEx Express and TNT Express, particularly on local legal matters, and played a key...
General counsel, representative executive officer | Unilever Japan
Assistant general counsel, head of legal and compliance | Cardinal Health
Senior vice president, group general counsel and chief compliance officer | Marelli
Managing counsel | McKinsey & Company
Yoshimi Tomizawa is managing counsel, Asia East of McKinsey & Company. Based in Tokyo, she manages a group of nine legal professionals based in Japan, Korea, Australia, Indonesia and Singapore,...
Head of legal - Japan | Google Japan
At the head of a sizeable in-house legal team for one of the most prominent and innovative companies in the world, Yuko Noguchi combines her legal expertise with acute business...
Corporate senior cice president and CLCO (executive officer) | NEC Corporation
The GC Powerlist: Japan is a milestone event for in-house lawyers in the Land of the Rising Sun. For the first time ever, The Legal 500 is able to highlight, award and bring together the greatest corporate counsel in the world’s third-largest economy in the way that only a GC Powerlist can. Many congratulations to all of the successful GCs who made it in to the final list, which has been one of the most competitive and thoroughly researched ever. That this list is long overdue goes without saying, given the size, development and international reputation of the Japanese in-house legal community, and it is a career highlight of mine to be able to present this meticulously crafted publication to you.
In The Legal 500’s GC Powerlist research team, we are often asked what makes the GC Powerlist series unique. There are many things that set it apart, but in my view the most important is that we recognise the full breadth of the legal community in a country or region that we research. While the big hitters at the large domestic and international companies make an appearance, we are also keen to speak to those from smaller companies and even sole GCs at startups. We know from experience that operating at a less well-established company or one with a smaller legal spend can often make for fertile innovation ground. For instance, take a look at Kahoru Sakurai’s quick start upon taking over at his relatively young company:
‘Kyash is a Fintech company that has been challenging the Japanese market for six years. I joined the company in 2021, and within the initial three months I successfully implemented a governance system by adopting software and internal rules. This system streamlined the approval flow and centralized all necessary corporate items through the creation of a corporate portal site. Over the following three months, I implemented 80 internal rules while managing my daily legal tasks. After completing the first stage of governance implementation, I focused on enhancing specific areas such as individual information protection and counterparty management. These efforts aimed to establish a strong foundation for our eventual IPO. In March 2022, our legal team played a pivotal role in the Series D financing. While working closely with outside counsel on negotiations and drafting, my team executed the deal, including shareholder meetings, the signing process, press releases, and filing with the BOJ.’
The more established companies in Japan have been making some impressive – and unique – innovations as well, as Akiko Kikuchi of Bayer details in her interview:
‘One innovative tool we have implemented is “Compla-san”, an award-winning game application for compliance training which we developed from scratch. Most recently, during our Global Compliance Week, we hosted a Compla-san competition in which employees took part to compete for prizes. The event culminated in an award ceremony for the winners which we held in Metaverse space.’
Innovation is of course key, but the core skill of a top GC (alongside legal expertise) is communicating good advice to the businesspeople in their organisations collaboratively. Hiroshi Mori of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group talked about this aspect of the role eloquently:
‘In-house lawyers should build strong relationships with their business partners by building a sense of trust between one another, always deepening mutual understanding of the business so that they remain on the same page. An important factor in this is to keep open equal communication between the counsel and the business partners.’
This is just a snapshot of the highly illuminating interviews that we have done over the course of our research for this publication with the leading lights of the Japanese in-house legal community. I would encourage you to read on to learn more about what makes the modern Japanese GC tick.
Many thanks to our partners EY for making this key legal event possible, and thank you to all the in-house lawyers who spoke to us as part of our painstaking research process for this first-ever Japan edition of the GC Powerlist. Congratulations again to all of those who made the final cut, and we look forward to next year!
Joe Boswell
Global Editor: The Legal 500’s Powerlist Series
The Legal 500
The 2025 edition of the GC Powerlist Colombia, held at the elegant Casa Medina in Bogotá, brought together some of the most influential general counsel and in-house legal leaders from across the country and region. The event highlighted how Colombian legal departments are evolving to meet the demands of an increasingly complex, tech-driven, and sustainability-conscious business environment. Key themes throughout the day included the strategic adoption of AI and legal tech, lean but agile team structures, shifting approaches to external counsel, and a strong commitment to ESG and inclusive leadership.
One of the most prominent discussion points was the integration of legal technology, particularly AI and large language models, into in-house legal work. Across companies like Uber, Unilever, Takeda, and GFT, there is strong momentum around the use of AI tools for contract lifecycle management—ranging from clause extraction and risk flagging to version control and automated drafting. However, rather than viewing AI as a replacement for legal professionals, most GCs described these technologies as strategic enablers that allow their teams to focus on higher-impact work. Laura Jaramillo Franco of Bayer provided one of the most detailed insights into how her team has deliberately structured their AI use. She emphasised that the value lies not in using AI for its own sake, but in tailoring each tool to specific use cases that align with legal risk standards and data protection policies. Tools such as Harvey, myGenAssist, Claude, Notebook, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Gamma are all part of Bayer’s ecosystem—each selected and implemented with clear purpose and governance.
Legal design was another emerging theme, with institutions like Scotiabank and Unilever investing in simplifying legal documents to make them more accessible to non-legal stakeholders. This is especially relevant in consumer-facing sectors where clear communication builds trust and mitigates risk. There is also growing interest in predictive analytics for litigation and compliance risk mapping, as legal departments seek more proactive ways to support business decisions.
Despite the growing influence of technology, staffing models remain lean. Most legal departments consist of teams ranging from three to nine professionals. However, size is no longer the defining factor of effectiveness. Instead, agility, business-embeddedness, and cross-functional collaboration are key. General counsel from companies such as Scotiabank, Cargill highlighted the increasing involvement of legal leaders in crisis management and business strategy, often working side by side with finance and communications teams. Upskilling, especially in technology and leadership, is an area of active investment, with Uber, for instance, noting formal programs aimed at equipping in-house lawyers for this evolving role.
The event also revealed a shift in the use of external counsel. In-house teams are now more confident in handling complex matters internally, including regulatory strategy, litigation, and M&A. Companies such as SierraCol and Bancolombia highlighted that while law firms remain essential, engagements are becoming more selective and strategic. The focus has moved from transactional work to long-term partnerships that add specialized value or support cross-border challenges.
Sustainability and ESG responsibilities continue to expand within legal departments. Legal leaders are increasingly central to ensuring compliance with ESG frameworks, advising on disclosures, and shaping product strategies aligned with social impact. Viviana Prada Rey of Grupo Cibest shared how her legal team plays a key role in advancing the company’s mission to contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. From advising on sustainable finance initiatives to monitoring ESG-related regulatory developments in both Colombia and the United States, the legal function has become instrumental in driving long-term impact.
Another area of strong focus was crisis resilience. Legal teams are leading scenario planning and designing compliance playbooks, ensuring they are prepared for unexpected events. Leadership and inclusion also featured prominently. Companies are integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into their legal team strategies. Juliana Hoyos Flórez, General Counsel of SierraCol, discussed the company’s ALMA program (Academia de Liderazgo para Mujeres de Alto Impacto), which has empowered over 180 women across the company and community with leadership skills and is expected to reach 300 by 2026.
In conclusion, the GC Powerlist Colombia 2025 was a testament to the transformation of the legal profession in the region. Far from being reactive support functions, today’s legal departments are strategic, tech-savvy, socially conscious, and embedded at the heart of business decision-making. As demonstrated once again, Colombia’s in-house legal leaders are not just keeping pace with global trends—they are helping define them.
