Hiroki Wakabayashi is a partner at Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, primarily representing both Japanese and non-Japanese financial institutions, audit corporations and business corporations in transaction disputes, professional responsibility disputes, labor relation disputes and other types of disputes, based on his experience as a lawyer as well as a judge. In addition to these corporate related disputes, he also practices in the areas of inheritance and domestic relations.

Takefumi Sato is a partner specializing primarily in the areas of commercial litigation, arbitration, mediation and other dispute resolution proceedings.  His experience covers a broad range of disputes, such as, securities litigations, M&A and Joint Venture related disputes, franchise business lawsuits, disputes over control of a company, and defective products lawsuits.  He also has a broad experience in the areas of labor and employment, including, advising revision of company rules, strategic advice in a pre-dispute phase, negotiation with protesting employees, handling lawsuits, preliminary injunction and labor tribunal, and advising on collective bargaining with labor unions.

Counsel to numerous debtors, creditors, creditors’ committees and equity holders for more than three decades in cases involving a wide spectrum of industries including banking, retail, real estate, construction, housing, golf resort, hotel, manufacturing, and cross-border enterprises. In recent years, served as liquidator in some of the largest bankruptcy cases in Japan. Practice also includes dispute resolution, commercial litigation, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property and labor issues. Frequently speaks on legal topics pertaining to insolvency and bankruptcy and has written expensively on the Corporate Reorganization Act, the Civil Rehabilitation Act and the Bankruptcy Act of Japan. Recognized as a leading restructuring and insolvency lawyer in Japan by Chambers Asia Pacific.

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 ).

Kei Akagawa (Mr.) is a partner who heads the dispute practice group of Anderson Mori & Tomotsune. He is specialized in dispute resolution (litigation, arbitration and out of court dispute resolution, including international dispute resolution). He is experienced in the various aspects of dispute resolution that arise in connection with corporate, including consumer related matters. In particular, he constantly engages in disputes concerning M&A transactions, Finance transactions, IT matters, Internet issues, Energy transactions, Real Estate transactions, Product Safety issues, Labor issues and Tax issues in Japan and overseas.

Mr. Aoi Inoue is a partner and the Head of the International Arbitration practice at Anderson Mori & Tomotsune. He specializes in international arbitration and litigation. He represents clients in a wide range of business disputes, including joint venture, distributorship, construction and infrastructure projects, licensing, franchising, complex financial products, labor & employment and product liability. He has acted as counsel in a number of international arbitrations under various rules including the ICC, SIAC, HKIAC, AAA-ICDR, JCAA, CIETAC, VIAC and UNCITRAL. He also serves as arbitrator and has been appointed to the panel of arbitrators of the JCAA, KCAB INTERNATIONAL and Japan Sports Arbitration Agency (JSAA). He has been recognized as a leading arbitration lawyer in Lexology Index Thought Leaders: Arbitration, Chambers and Partners, The Legal 500: Asia Pacific, Best Lawyers and Benchmark Litigation Asia-Pacific. Mr. Inoue also acts for overseas clients seeking to expand into Japan through international franchising. His support includes structuring, negotiating and drafting relevant documents such as international direct franchise agreements, international master franchise agreements and joint venture agreements. He also assists Japanese clients seeking to expand into foreign countries through international franchising. Mr. Inoue has been nominated for inclusion in the list of recognized franchise lawyers of Lexology Index: Franchise.

Ryo Kikuchi is specialized in dispute resolution (litigation, mediation, commercial non-contentious cases and out of court dispute resolution). In particular, he has extensive experience in disputes involving M&A and corporate law matters. He also handles disputes concerning Internet issues, finance transactions, corporate scandals, energy transactions and other commercial transaction issues.

Akira Tanaka particularly specializes in tax. He has broad experience and expertise in various tax practices, ranging from tax planning to tax litigation. He also has extensive experience working on general dispute resolution matters. He has represented numerous Japanese and foreign companies in litigation and other dispute resolution procedures, in areas such as international transactions, M&A and financial transactions.

Ryohei Ikeda is a partner who is mainly engaged in litigation and dispute resolution. He also handles a broad range of matters including financial transactions, M&A and general corporate matters.

Throughout his career, Jun Suzuki has developed his extensive expertise in economic security field. After being called to the bar in Japan, he started his careers at law firms in Japan and the United States. Following the graduation of the LL.M. program in Washington DC, during which he focused on national security law, he gained further practical experience as a senior manager in a major Japanese electronics/entertainment company and its U.S. subsidiaries, particularly in the area of economic security. Since 2022, Jun Suzuki has been working on the development of domestic legal systems related to economic security (including the Economic Security Promotion Act, the Act on the Protection and Utilization of Critical Economic Security Information, Act on the Review and Regulation of the Use of Real Estate Surrounding Important Facilities and on Remote Territorial Islands as well as Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act) or establishment of operational structure for such laws, etc., as Deputy Director of the Economic Security Policy Division of the Foreign Policy Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Additionally, Jun Suzuki has many experiences in dispute resolution (domestic/cross-border) and transactions involving intellectual properties, having begun his career in said law firms and Japanese company.

Yutaka Shimoo is a partner who principally focuses on tax, wealth management and dispute resolution, and also broadly handles corporate legal affairs including corporate affairs, labor and employment, and crisis management. With regard to tax and wealth management, Yutaka provides advice from both legal and tax perspectives, drawing on his extensive work experience as a lawyer and his experience as an officer with the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau. His strength in these areas lies in capabilities on the fields where legal matter and tax matter are intersected each other, such as global incentives and capital policies, and wide experience on cross-border transactions. Recently, Yutaka has also actively worked on tax issues related to digital assets such as cryptocurrencies and NFTs. In addition, Yutaka has extensive litigation experience representing financial institutions and business corporations in the dispute resolution field, and also handles many disputes related to inheritance and business succession.