What are the key projects that you have been involved in over the past twelve months?

One of the most significant projects I have led over the past twelve months was the strategic termination of our spot-work service, “Mercari Hallo.” As the chief legal officer, I oversaw the legal team in identifying and addressing complex regulatory requirements, as well as contractual obligations under our Terms of Service and partner agreements. My role involved conducting comprehensive legal analysis and risk assessments to ensure a seamless transition and mitigate potential disputes. By providing clear legal guidance on the wind-down process, I enabled the business to reallocate resources to other core strategic areas while maintaining full compliance and protecting the company’s reputation.

Please describe a situation where your advice had a significant impact on business outcomes or objectives.

A recent example of my legal advice directly impacting business outcomes was our strategic investment in SURUGA-YA Inc. To meet a highly compressed timeline for signing and closing, I led the internal legal team in close collaboration with our external counsel and the project team. Beyond traditional legal risk management, I focused on a collaborative approach that addressed the specific needs and operational realities of the target company. By fostering a sense of partnership rather than a purely adversarial negotiation style, we built mutual trust and achieved a seamless closing. This investment was a key milestone in accelerating our group’s mission to promote a circular economy through enhanced reuse infrastructure.

What are the most important attributes for a modern in-house counsel to possess?

In my view, the most vital attribute for a modern in-house counsel is the ability to empower “Go Bold” decision-making. Legal professionals must evolve beyond being mere risk-avoiders; they must act as strategic partners who facilitate growth. This requires a mindset of proactively imagining various scenarios and analysing both risks and opportunities. By providing a balanced perspective that accounts for potential upsides alongside legal safeguards, we enable the business to take calculated risks and innovate with confidence.

AI remains at the forefront of conversations about the future. How can in-house counsel ensure the successful integration of legal tech, while maintaining the human element?

As the use of AI agents becomes more prevalent, I believe we should interact with them with the same level of thoughtfulness and courtesy as we do with human colleagues. Using AI “casually” or without precision often leads to mediocre results. Instead, by being deliberate and thorough in our information sharing and prompt engineering, we can extract higher-quality insights and achieve faster, more accurate outcomes. Maintaining this professional rigor in our interaction with legal tech ensures that the “human element” — our judgment and intent — remains the driving force behind the technology.

Are there any upcoming challenges that in-house teams should be preparing for over the next twelve months?

Over the next twelve months, our primary challenge will be the strategic integration of AI agents across the organisation. However, the goal is not just for the legal department to use AI in isolation. Rather, we aim to create a virtuous cycle where we leverage the outputs generated by other departments’ AI tools, refine them through a legal lens, and return even better, high-value results to the business. Building this cross-functional ecosystem of AI-driven collaboration will be essential to increasing the overall speed and quality of our corporate governance and operations.