Practice Areas

Shipbuilding contracts are risky if the SAJ form is used unrevised. Shipbuilding contracts, which involve a large amount of money and long-term construction periods, require various provisions to be included, such as what happens in the case of bankruptcy. The same applies to sale and purchase contracts for newly built vessels. Our firm is currently involved in the process of revising both Japanese- and English-language shipbuilding contracts for several prominent shipyards. Naturally, we also handle the various problems that arise in relation to shipyards.

There are few maritime lawyers in Japan, particularly in western Japan where their numbers can be counted. We are one of the few firms which provide advice on bareboat, voyage and time charter party contracts for domestic and oceangoing vessels, and contracts of affreightment. We are one of the very few law firms in Japan which also handle matters related to logistics law, including land and air transportation, portside transportation, warehousing contracts, and multimodal transportation. Our firms primarily acts in the following matters on behalf of major insurance companies and major transportation companies.

• Bills of lading, domestic/ocean-going time charterparties, voyage charterparties, bareboat charterparties, towage contracts and contracts of affreightment
• Container transportation, portside transportation, warehousing, land transportation, sea transportation and air transportation
• Accidents at sea, accidents in port, accidents in warehouses, multimodal transportation, and other matters related to shipping and logistics

We often act in cases on the side of both victims and insurance companies, including cases involving death or serious residual injury such as high-order brain disfunction; we represent clients nationwide, from Hokkaido to Okinawa, utilizing telephone and video conferencing. Our includes objecting to residual injury level determination by the compulsory liability insurer in traffic accident cases, requesting the review of residual injury level determination by workplace insurers, and voluntary and statutory guardianship processes when nursing care is required.

We handle various real estate issues, including maters related to ownership (securitization, construction-related litigation, provisional attachment and injunctions, and enforcement and auction), leasing (including fixed-term commercial and residential leases), commercial eviction, residential eviction, construction subcontracting, eviction compensation negotiation (on both the landlord and tenant side) and condominiums (advising management committees and management companies). Recently, the number of cases regarding medical and nursing care facilities and leasing land from local governments is increasing.

We have experience handling both out-of-court procedures such as corporate rehabilitation and private restructuring, and court-based legal processes such as bankruptcy, civil rehabilitation and corporate reorganisation. In bankruptcy procedures we have a history of acting on behalf of debtors, creditors and as the administrator in bankruptcy.

In the area of corporate law, in addition to the above logistics-related matters, we also have particular strengths in debt recovery, workplace accidents, labour-related matters (including the revision of employment regulations), competition law and subcontracting law. In addition to a wealth of experience representing large banks, guarantee associations, major trading companies, and large listed companies, we are also strong in negotiations, such as direct on-site negotiations with antisocial forces and serial complainers, and we also provide legal services regarding international transactions.

Our firm not only acts to investigate fraud when an information leak or scandal occurs, but we also formulate and manage overall plans for when specific scandals occur. Not only that, but our major strength is our ability to advice on crisis management public relations, namely, whether to conduct a press conference and the questions of when, who, where, and how it should be conducted. Our track record includes representing politicians, celebrities, and famous golf courses.

In relation to hospitals, pharmacies, and various nursing care facilities, we provide legal support to doctors, pharmacists and others in the healthcare and nursing industry in relation to real estate transactions and contract reviews associated with facility construction, personnel and labor issues including harassment and depression, business rehabilitation and M&As, and dealing with patient complaints. We regularly advise doctors, including many well-known doctors, executives and pharmacists belonging to voluntary chain of over 1000 pharmacies nationwide, aged care facilities and other nursing care facilities.

We provide advice and support on drafting the most appropriate contracts for our clients’ needs, including post-retirement asset management for clients and their parents, asset management and family trusts for children with disabilities and incurable diseases, wills (holographic and notarized wills), family trusts for business succession, and voluntary and statutory guardianship. We also assist clients in inheritance disputes.