Nishimura & Asahi offers unparalleled strength in diverse dispute resolution areas including financial disputes, general commercial and product liability. The firm often receives instructions from domestic and foreign corporations in the automotive, pharmaceuticals, insurance, financial institutions and electronics sectors. In particular, the firm is a front-runner in international arbitration with a practice led by Hiroyuki Tezuka and Akihiro Hironaka. Yutaro Kawabata and Lars Markert are also noteworthy international arbitration practitioners.
In commercial and transactions, the firm successfully defended a German automotive supplier from claims by a Japanese automotive supplier in a large product liability action before the Yokohama District Court and Tokyo High Court. Apart from complex technical issues, the dispute raises difficult questions of international jurisdiction and service of process, considering a multi-layered supply chain in Europe, as well as independent evidentiary proceedings in German courts against the client and separate arbitration proceedings brought against a second defendant. The Yokohama District Court and the Tokyo High Court ruled in favour of the firm’s client, dismissing the claim for lack of Japanese jurisdiction.
The rest of the cases handled during the research period are confidential.
The firm is branching out into Singaporean and Indonesian arbitration with a strong construction angle, driven by its Singapore office partner Shintaro Uno.
