Team size: 20

What are the most significant cases, projects, and transactions that you and your legal team have recently been involved in?

In addition to temp staffing services, Adecco Japan (Adecco) has been focusing on outsourcing services in recent years, providing not only call center operations for private companies but also handling social insurance, pension, payroll, and subsidy-related administrative tasks for numerous public institutions and local governments.

In 2024, Adecco was awarded an outsourcing services contract by a large local government to take over certain large volumes of its operational administrative tasks. However, the local government lacked familiarity with the specific operational administrative tasks (which had been outsourced to the third party prior to Adecco), and numerous issues such as inadequate handover documents and insufficient instructions were discovered later that resulted in an unexpected significant workload increase on Adecco. Adecco requested corrective measures for the deficiencies, but no progress was made. Without any corrective measures including additional compensation, Adecco had no prospect of adequately fulfilling the increased workload. As a result, Adecco proposed terminating the contract due to inability to perform, however, without adequate deliberation, the local government unilaterally imposed a suspension of public bidding nomination and claimed liquidated damages of more than several hundred thousand dollars.

Adecco filed an administrative lawsuit challenging this decision and negotiated with the local government. However, the contract terms were highly favourable to the local government and such contract are usually nonnegotiable (meaning Adecco and other service provider should accept the terms as it is), there was no incentive for an early resolution unlike in cases involving private companies (which have financial and reputational incentives to settle sooner), there was a change in policy due to a change in personnel, and the district court was inclined to favour the administrative body, all of which made the negotiations significantly different from typical litigation procedures engaged with private companies (with whom our legal team has deep knowledge and experiences how to negotiate and settle).

Despite these adverse circumstances, the legal team grasped extremely complex administrative procedures, identified favourable points, prepared negotiation materials in close collaboration with our business teams, and persistently led both litigation and negotiations over approximately one year. As a result, in 2025, Adecco finally secured a reasonable settlement that has successfully achieved Adecco to minimise economic damages and protect its reputation.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crisis to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

As AI tech tools evolve rapidly, it is inevitable that almost all of the core tasks traditionally handled by in house legal organisations, such as contract review, interpretation of applicable laws, and legal judgments based on case law searches, will eventually be replaced by the AI tech tools.

Most of the work currently performed by lawyers and in-house legal involves “finding the optimal interpretation from a large volume of accumulated past data and applying it to specific cases,” which is precisely the area where AI tech tools excel. Unlike humans, AI tools can continuously produce consistent results without requiring adequate rest or wage increases. From the corporate executive perspective, there is little incentive to maintain an in-house legal organisation that competes with AI on the same playing field.

In this AI-dominated era, I believe that the paths for in-house legal to take are to focus on more emotional aspects of our services that only humans can provide, and to actively explore areas where there are no clear answers yet. Re-recognising that the gist of corporate in house legal work is very similar to service hospitality industry like hotels, in house legal organisations must boldly entrust AI with tasks such as contract review, contract management, data search, and due diligence, and focus much more on providing memorable emotional experiences with utmost hospitality that leave a lasting impression on business colleagues, such as showing hospitality in consulting with in house legal professionals, delivering pleasure comfortable experiences, and reassuring relief during hard negotiations.

With great help of AI tools, in-house legal should take on the role of a guide, leading the way into uncharted territories such as SDGs, human rights and integrity. Until now, the focus of in house legal has been remaining on how to comply with visible existing laws and regulations, but going forward on top of the compliance, the ability to judge promptly and respond effectively to invisible social norms and integrity will be the lifeline of survival of a company. Many corporate scandals are not caused by clear violations of laws but by mishandling situations from the perspective of social norms from public perspectives. No matter how thoroughly contracts are reviewed or how large the size of in-house legal department is, corporate scandals occur because companies often forget to do the right thing and fail to promote intangible integrity culture. I do believe actively engaging in this integrity area will be the top priority of future in house legal work that will eventually contribute to enhance corporate value.

Have you had any experiences during your career as a lawyer that stand out as particularly unique or interesting?

I founded a venture company with my colleagues, and I’m currently involved in its management by serving as a non-executive director. About 15 years ago, while working in the legal department of an environmental consulting firm, I had an opportunity to participate in a project exploring how to utilise and leverage Japan’s abundant forest assets to revitalise local communities. Based on market research indicating the project’s business viability, I decided to deep dive into the local community business by setting up a venture company with five other project members to pursue regional forest asset revitalisation. The venture was initially established as a wholly owned subsidiary of the environmental consulting firm, and several years later the venture spun off from the parent and became independent.

The main business of the venture was trading local products and asset management through forest trusts. However, at the time, there were virtually no lawyers specialising in forestry-related legal matters, so I leveraged my expertise in real estate laws and transaction – including the consolidation of forest lands and the restructuring of trust-like long term leasehold rights spanning several decades to establish the new business frameworks to successfully launch the forest asset management business.

At the venture, I had to engage in a wide range of tasks beyond the normal scope of legal work, including fundraising, finance and tax, human resources and labour relations, public relations as well as business marketing and sales. This rich experience significantly enhanced my business acumen and gained firsthand understanding of how the company was actually managed, which would not have been possible through only working as an in-house legal counsel.

By establishing a unique position as a legal professional with deep understanding of the forestry industry, an area that few people pay attention to, I was able to increase my own value while gaining firsthand experience through venture management of how people, resources, and money move. This experience has been invaluable in enabling me to think and make decisions from a broad perspective as a legal head today.

What is a cause, business or otherwise, that you are passionate about? Why is this?

I am passionate about “making the work for everyone.” Work, which occupies most of our lifetime, should inherently be a means of self-realisation and pursuit of happiness, but the reality is work has somehow become a source of hardship and stress.

As symbolised by the term “work-life balance,” work and life have come to be seen as separate entities, with work often regarded as something to be avoided. Almost everyone has freedom to choose their occupation and work voluntarily without being forced by someone, nonetheless people are often complaining about their work. Complaints and dissatisfaction, along with the resulting bad moods, spread not only in the workplace but also in families and society, instilling a distaste for work in the children who will shape our future. I am constantly thinking about how to improve current unproductive circumstances through creation of a good cycle where achieving self-fulfilment and pursuing happiness through work not only benefits oneself but also positively influences others, and children can’t wait to look forward to working.

One key to improving this negative notion of work lies in the reform of labour laws and labour justice. Japan’s labour laws, which have been centred on time management in factories since early 1900s, have primarily focused on protecting workers from harsh and demanding labour conditions. These laws are no longer suitable for the modern era of AI and promoting side jobs and remote work. Additionally, the labour judicial system, which has been influenced by these labour laws, remains outdated and heavily focused on protecting workers as the weak.

While I do understand and agree that worker protection is a necessary foundation of labour laws and judicial system, as a legal professional engaging in the HR services industry, I am committed to striving for the updating of labour law policies and fostering a mindset shift from outdated notions of work to a new vision of work that enables each individual to unlock their potential and pursue self-realization and happiness.