Agricultural Management Legal Seminar

Yasunari Sugiyama is a partner in the firm's Asset Finance Group and Agri-Food Practice Group. In the finance area, his major and unique areas include financing of movables (lease, installment purchase and secured loan), supports for overseas expansion by financial institutions, acquisition finance and domestic and cross-border real estate transactions. In particular, he has extensive experience in proposing and implementing business plans and schemes available for each target jurisdiction taking into consideration the specific civil and commercial laws and financial regulations regarding the movables and real estates in Asian, European and North and South American countries and their entity-based and geographical applicability and coverage in terms of the overseas expansion of Japanese financial institutions. Further, in the agri-food area, he aims to provide legal services for the purposes of the introduction of smart agriculture, business expansion and diversification of financing sources, development and scaling of new business such as solar-sharing and onland aquaculture business, in each case while organizing the various laws and regulations applicable to each process of value chains of the agricultural, forestry and fishery business.

Based on his experience working for the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, he provides a wide range of regulatory compliance, policy advocacy and rulemaking, and new business and business development advice, as well as contract-related support in the agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and food sectors. He also provides strategic support for mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, business succession, start-up financing, intellectual property strategies, and international transactions. The Agri-Food Practice was "Commended" at the FT Innovative Lawyers Asia-Pacific Awards 2023 for its innovative activities.

Miki Tsubono is an attorney in the Corporate and Mergers & Acquisitions Practice Group. In the corporate practice area, he provides daily legal consultations, support on individual cases and business decisions, and company internal training, to business and legal departments of companies. He understands the importance of being easy to talk to, being deeply familiar with his clients’ businesses and organizations, and providing prompt responses. He advises companies in relation to drafts and negotiations of commercial contracts, contract and PL disputes, and Japanese company law and corporate governance matters, including business decisions and shareholders meetings. Further, he has experience in supporting Japanese companies in contract negotiations between foreign companies and with researching foreign laws, as well as representing foreign companies in inbound transactions. In the M&A practice area, he provides advice to companies, public-private funds, and PE funds on domestic and cross-border M&A transactions, including business mergers, alliances, going private, acquisitions, investments, divestures, joint ventures, and reorganizations. He has experience handling M&A matters in industries such as manufacturing, construction, financial services, healthcare, and entertainment. Recently, he has begun advising clients on renewable energy investments.