| As part of a growing trend, a number of Japanese law firms are expanding their reach domestically by opening offices outside their usual headquarters in Tokyo. In a bid to gain a foothold in Nagoya and Fukuoka, three firms out of the Japanese ‘Big 4’* have launched new offices west of Tokyo within the last few months.
Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, which has been on the ground for more than 60 years, opened its office in Nagoya in September. When asked about the trend that we were seeing and the rationale for the expansion, Takashi Watanebe, one of Anderson Mori’s Managing Partners, stated that the firm saw Nagoya as a “focal point for the manufacturing of cars and automobile related industries.” The new office was opened with a view to catering to “some of the large corporations” and Nagoya was seen as a “greenfield site, particularly because not all of the other big Japanese firms had branch offices there.” In addition, he commented that “many of the car companies were expanding in South East Asia generally” so with the firm intending to augment its practices elsewhere in the (Asian) region, “it made sense” to follow the automotive work flowing from Nagoya. Finally, when asked whether further expansion within Japan was on the horizon, Watanebe remarked that any plans to launch elsewhere, “say in Osaka, would turn on the success of the new Nagoya practice.” Both Nishamura & Asahi and Mori Hamada & Matsumoto established a presence in Fukuoka in July of this year, though the latter officially commenced operations on 1st October. For Nishamura & Asahi, their latest offering in Fukuoka represents the firm’s fourth outpost in Japan; Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya being the locations of their first three offices. For Mori Hamada & Matsumoto, Fukuoka constitutes one of the key cities in Japan and is recognised as a significant market in the sales and manufacturing sectors. A surge in the number of companies going outbound from Fukuoka to other countries within Asia has led to a recognition by the firm (and some of its contemporaries) of the importance of the business activities emanating out of Western Japan. Japan’s fifth biggest firm, TMI Associates, opened an office in Nagoya last year. * The Big 4 are Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto, Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu and Nishimura & Asahi. |
Japanese law firms are following their clients and opening up ‘borderless’ practices
