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
On October 2, Legal 500 returned to Copenhagen to host the highly anticipated GC Summit: Denmark 2025 at the Radisson Collection Royal Hotel. The event brought together prominent voices from the legal and business communities to explore the evolving role of in-house counsel in a rapidly shifting global landscape.
The day began with opening remarks from Legal 500’s editorial lead, Francisco Castro, who welcomed attendees and set the tone for the summit. He emphasised the importance of convening the corporate counsel community to engage in meaningful dialogue around the pressing challenges – and emerging opportunities – facing legal teams today.
The first panel delved into crisis management strategies for legal departments. Hanne Marthine Frederiksen, partner at Poul Schmith, and Søren Søndergaard, director at Rud Pedersen, shared practical insights on early risk detection, cross-functional coordination, and post-crisis recovery planning. The discussion underscored the growing expectation for legal teams to lead during periods of uncertainty and equipped attendees with actionable tools to enhance organisational resilience.
The second panel focused on regulatory reform, specifically the EU’s Digital Omnibus proposal and anticipated changes to the GDPR and NIS 2 Directive. Marlene Winther Plas and Christian Wiese Svanberg from DLA Piper Denmark, joined by Heidi Warm from the firm’s Brussels office and Tina Dorthe Nielsen, senior legal counsel at FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, offered a practitioner’s perspective on navigating evolving data protection and cybersecurity legislation. The panel highlighted areas where simplification could benefit businesses and improve compliance outcomes.
After a short coffee break, the conversation turned to the insurance industry’s response to emerging global risks. Medea Solevad Plesner, legal director at Kennedys, Anja Deleuran, senior insurance manager at Carlsberg, Thomas Brenøe, director at Insurance and Pension Denmark, Lars Søhøj, financial lines underwriter at Zurich, and Jonas Spangsberg Svensson, attorney at The RiskPoint Group, explored how climate change, geopolitical instability, and the rise of consumer-led class actions are reshaping corporate risk profiles. The panel examined implications for claims handling and the future of insurance solutions across cyber, product liability, property, and D&O.
The final panel of the day addressed how legal teams can position themselves as strategic business partners. Moderated by Francisco Castro, the session featured John F. Kuckleman, group general counsel at Novo Nordisk, and Pia Ullum, legal vice president at Dell Technologies. Both speakers shared compelling examples of how in-house counsel can align more closely with business objectives, demonstrate measurable value, and build influence across the C-suite. The discussion highlighted the shift from reactive legal support to proactive leadership and commercial insight.
To close the event, Francisco Castro thanked all speakers and attendees for their contributions and engagement throughout the day. He reaffirmed Legal 500’s commitment to supporting the in-house legal community through high-impact events and thought leadership. Guests were then invited to enjoy refreshments and informal networking, providing a relaxed setting to continue conversations and forge new connections.
