In recent years, there is an increasing number of cases whereby companies are being investigated by the authorities pursuant to various laws and regulations. In order to avoid and/or mitigate administrative disciplinary action, it is important to understand the regulators’ perspective and appropriately handle these governmental investigations. Many of AMT’s lawyers have previously been working at various government agencies and can provide invaluable practical advice in each case as well as build teams that represent clients most effectively.
INSIGHTS
PROFESSIONALS

Utilizing his twelve years of experience in the Ministry of Justice and the Prosecutors' Office, Mr. Kikawa represents domestic and foreign clients in administrative and criminal investigations by various enforcement agencies, and in complex commercial, administrative, and consumer disputes.
He also has extensive experience in advising on internal investigations into legal violations and corporate scandals, and on compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
Although his range of legal practice is broad, he has particular expertise in the following areas.
【Advertising and marketing regulations】
Mr. Kikawa advises clients on advertising and marketing regulations, including matters governed by the Misleading Representation Act, the Pharmaceutical Advertising Regulations, the Medical Advertising Regulations, and the Mail Order Sales Regulations under the Specified Commercial Transactions Act. He provides legal services at various stages, from preventive advice to defense against administrative investigations.
【Healthcare-related regulations and medical disputes】
Mr. Kikawa provides comprehensive legal advice on matters governed by medical, pharmaceutical, and healthcare laws and regulations, including the Medical Care Act, the Medical Practitioners’ Act, and the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Act.
He also represents medical institutions and medical professionals in disputes arising in the healthcare field, drawing on his experience as Chief Prosecutor for Medical Affairs at the Tokyo Prosecutors' Office.
【Immigration】
Drawing on his experience at the Ministry of Justice, where he drafted the amendments to the 2009 immigration reform, Mr. Kikawa offers reliable legal advice on visas and immigration matters and represents clients in immigration cases.
【Criminal law】
Mr. Kikawa advises clients on a wide range of criminal matters, including bribery, gambling, immigration and extradition matters.
He also represents victims in filing criminal complaints and seeking criminal remedies in cases involving fraud, embezzlement, breach of trust, and misappropriation of trade secrets.
【Administrative investigation defense】
Mr. Kikawa defends clients against administrative investigations by enforcement agencies under various laws and regulations.
He focuses on defense strategies aimed at avoiding the imposition of serious administrative sanctions, such as revocation of business licenses, suspension of operations, cease and desist orders or monetary penalties. These defenses are implemented during voluntary inquiries, written representations, in-person hearings, and preliminary injunction proceedings.
【Internal investigations】
Mr. Kikawa conducts internal investigations into legal violations and corporate scandals. He brings extensive experience investigating corporate crimes, including embezzlement and breach of trust, as well as handling incidents related to product quality and safety.

Takehiro Shibuya is a special counsel of Anderson Mori & Tomotsune. He has extensive experience with financial regulatory issues including the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law and various types of financial transactions. Prior to joining our firm, Mr. Shibuya served as a Securities and Exchange Inspector at the Kanto Local Finance Bureau of the Ministry of Finance for three years, where he was primarily in charge of inspection for financial instruments dealers, examination of insider trading and market operations.

Daisuke Asai, a partner in Anderson Mori’s financial restructuring and insolvency group, specializes in restructuring and insolvency/bankruptcy, litigation/dispute resolution and M&A both domestic and international. He has broad experience in cross-border restructuring and bankruptcy and has represented domestic and foreign clients/trustees in many large bankruptcy cases of global businesses.

Junichi Kondo is a partner at Anderson Mori & Tomotsune and is engaged principally in the fields of general corporate matters with an emphasis on M&A, joint venture and other corporate transactions including M&A-related financing. His scope of experience also includes healthcare matters including pharmaceutical regulations and software licensing.

Shinji Kusakabe specializes in advising on legal issues in manufacturing, such as commercial transactions and product liabilities. Mr. Kusakabe has a wealth of practical experience in litigation and arbitration, both international and domestic. Mr. Kusakabe's particular specialties lie in providing targeted advice to clients on corporate matters, taking into consideration potential future disputes, and in resolving current disputes in light of actual business practices and circumstances.
Cases which Mr. Kusakabe has recently handled include lawsuits related to termination of commercial relationships, illegal transactions conducted by employees, product liability, bid-rigging conspiracies and inventions by employees. Mr. Kusakabe is also actively engaged in international arbitration, including matters arbitrated outside Japan.
In addition to his professional experience at Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, Mr. Kusakabe's prior experience includes working as a Foreign Associate at Kelley Drye & Warren's New York office (September 1999 to August 2000) and a full-time secondment to Swiss Bank Corporation's (now UBS AG) Tokyo Legal & Compliance department (February to July 1998).
Mr. Kusakabe also served as:
Executive Director, the Headquarters for Comprehensive Promotion of Civil Justice Reform of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (from June 2026);
Member of the Advisory Committee for the Establishment of Civil Rules of the Supreme Court (from August 2025);
Special Assistant to the President of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (from April 2025 to September 2025);
President of the Daini Tokyo Bar Association (from April 2024 to March 2025);
Vice President of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (from April 2024 to March 2025);
Expert Member of the Nuclear Damage Compensation Dispute Review Board (from June 2022 to June 2023);
Member of the Code of Civil Procedure (for Introduction of IT) Subcommittee of the Legislative Council of the Ministry of Justice (from June 2020 to February 2022);
Governor of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (from April 2020 to March 2021; Executive Governor from June 2020 to March 2021);
Chair of the Committee on Civil Procedure of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (from June 2019 to May 2021);
Examiner for the National Bar Examination and the National Preliminary Bar Examination (in Charge of the Code of Civil Procedure) (from November 2018 to November 2021);
Vice President of the Daini Tokyo Bar Association (from April 2017 to March 2018); and
Practicing-Attorney-Professor for Civil Advocacy at the Legal Training and Research Institute of the Supreme Court of Japan (from April 2010 to March 2013) (for details of this position, please visit http://www.courts.go.jp/english/institute_01/institute/index.html#Intro ).

Yukiko Imazu focuses her practice in the area of labor and employment and acts on behalf of both Japanese and non-Japanese companies in advising on labor and employment issues. She is also an experienced labor and employment litigator, having successfully defended many cases. She also gives seminars and training sessions regarding labor and employment matters tailored to clients' needs, both in Japanese and English. Especially, she gives a lot of harassment prevention seminars to non-Japanese companies, Japanese companies, Japanese governmental bodies and universities.

Capital markets transactions including private/public securities offerings, M&A transactions, general corporate matters and intellectual property

Fraud Investigation/Crisis Management
With his background as a public prosecutor, an investigator at the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC) and a fraud investigator/forensic accountant at a Big 4 accounting firm, Hidetaka specializes on investigation of white collar crimes and fraudulent activities such as accounting fraud, market manipulation, insider trading, embezzlement, bribery and cybercrime and handles government inquiries of criminal and administrative authorities.
Disclosure Regulations/ Accounting and Auditing
With his experience in enforcing disclosure regulations in accounting frauds as an SESC investigator and addressing fraud risk in financial statements audit procedures at a Big 4 accounting firm, Hidetaka advises on disclosure regulations and accounting and auditing issues.
Financial Regulations
With his experience of being seconded to a foreign asset management and to a domestic major bank, investigation experience of foreign institutional investors' market manipulation and other fraudulent trade and foreign financial institutions' excessive entertainment for public pension fund, Hidetaka generally advises on financial regulations.
Compliance
Hidetaka generally advises on enhancement of compliance program to address bribery risk, antitrust risk and other compliance risk in response to foreign and domestic enforcements and on issues related to Japanese companies' management of their foreign subsidiaries.

Shinji Nakamura, an active member of the JICPA and the Daini Tokyo Bar Association, is an accounting and corporate disclosure expert. Since 2000, he has been assisting domestic and international clients with various types of securities offerings, and offering multi-dimensional advice on accounting, corporate disclosure and auditing regulations. He also has expertise in IFRS-related rules and regulations, and responses to accounting scandals as well as dispute resolutions arising as a result of such incidents.
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