Welcome to the ALB Japan In-House Legal Summit 2025

   DATE              Thursday, 17 April 2025

   TIME                09.00am to 5.00pm 

    VENUE            The Ritz-Carlton, Tokyo

                                      Tokyo Midtown 9-7-1, Akasaka,

                                      Minato-ku, Tokyo, 107-6245 Japan

SPEAKERS

Akemi Suzuki, Partner, Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu

Akemi Suzuki has more than 20 years of experience representing Japanese and international companies in a wide range of complex cross-border transactions. Akemi’s practice focuses on cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and large-scale commercial projects, and her client list includes leading companies across diverse sectors, including pharmaceuticals, technology, energy, and hospitality. She also has extensive experience advising public and private companies on various corporate governance matters.

In addition to her corporate practice, Akemi regularly advises clients on matters relating to the evolving areas of data privacy, data governance, and information security, with an emphasis on highly-regulated industries, such as telecommunications and pharmaceuticals.

Akemi has received numerous recognitions for her client work, D&I initiatives, and pro-bono work. Recent notable awards include Woman Lawyer of the Year (Law Firm) at the ALB Japan Law Awards 

(2022), and Lawyer of the Year in Privacy and Data Security Law, awarded by The Best Lawyers in Japan (2022).

Yusei Uji, Partner, Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu

Yusei Uji is a corporate partner at Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu. He provides a wide range of legal advice primarily focused on M&A, corporate reorganizations, private equity investments, and corporate governance. With extensive experience in cross-border transactions, he handles M&A deals involving companies in the United States, Europe, and various Asian countries.

Akiko Funatsu, Strategic Client Solutions, Consilio Japan GK

Yuichiro Watanabe, Director, Japan In-house Lawyers Association (Lead Counsel & Director, Airbnb Japan)

Yu was born in Tottori, Japan. He worked at Freshfields and DeNA before joining Airbnb in August 2015 as its third lawyer in Asia. He is now Lead Counsel and Director at Airbnb Japan, and also serves as a Board Member and Deputy Secretary General of the Japan In-house Lawyers Association. In his 30s, he won multiple ALB Japan Law Awards, six consecutive wins across four categories (eight total), and became the youngest recipient of the “In-House Lawyer of the Year” award. He continues to focus on shaping corporate strategy through innovative legal solutions.

Anthony Luna, General Counsel, IBM Japan

Anthony Luna joined IBM Japan in 2013, handling M&A, litigation, and strategic outsourcing agreements. He became General Counsel and a Board Member in 2017.

Outside IBM, Anthony is an Adjunct Professor at Keio University Law School, teaching AI & Legal Trends, and Startup & Venture Law. He also serves as Co-Chair of the Japan Association of Chief Legal Officers and an Executive Board Member of the Japan In-House Counsel Network.

Before IBM, Anthony was a Corporate & M&A Partner at Jones Day Tokyo and previously worked at Squire, Sanders & Dempsey (Silicon Valley & Tokyo).

Wise Wang, Legal Lead for Japan & Korea, X Corp. Japan

Wise Wang serves as the Legal Lead for Japan & Korea at X, supporting all the legal related tasks to transform X to the everything app. Before this, Wise was the inaugural in-house legal counsel at ByteDance K.K., where he supervised a myriad of products including TikTok and various other B2B and B2C services. Apart from his career trajectory of legal roles, Wise contributed as a business management consultant at renowned firms like IBM and Deloitte. A significant milestone in his career was leading the IPO (Global Offering) process for the Japan-based start-up, Plaid.

Mina Hoshizawa, Head of Legal and Compliance, Nihon Servier

Mina Hoshizawa is Head of Legal and Compliance at Servier in Japan, sitting at its Leadership Team. Before joining Servier, she belonged to Bayer in Japan and served as Compliance Manager for the entire company and as Legal Manager for its Consumer Health Business and Crop Science Business. Mina is a qualified Japanese bengoshi (attorney), and before joining Bayer, she worked at Freshfields’ Tokyo office. She is the leader of a working group of the Governance and Legal Committee of The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). She was selected as LexisNexis® UNDER 40 2024, Japan Rising Star 2024 by GC Powerlist Legal 500, and became the first JILA In-house award winner in in the Compliance category in Individual Awards 2023. 

Natsue Ishida, Vice President, Executive Officer, Managing Director of Legal and Intellectual Property Division, SEGA SAMMY Holdings Inc.

Natsue is an experienced legal, compliance, data privacy leader and professional who practices legal as enabler to create business value from the management perspective.

Her areas of expertise include management and strategic legal, legal function design and restructure, data protection/privacy, intellectual property, international business, M&A, corporate governance, compliance, corporate ethics, risk management.

In over 20 years of in-house experience in the US, Europe and Japan, she has served as the legal and general counsel, chief compliance officer, and data privacy officer for global companies in various industries including commercial vehicles, cosmetics, medical devices, electronics, and finance.

Natsue is a US (New York, 1999) licensed attorney and Certified Information Privacy Professional (US, 2005).

Tomoaki Kuragano, Japan Legal Director, Medtronic

Tomoaki is a dual-licensed attorney in Japan and New York with diverse experience at top global law firms and healthcare corporations. As the Japan Legal Director for Medtronic, he leads the legal team and work as a Japan Core leadership team member. He authored "Legal Practice for Medical Device Business" and co-authored pioneering guides on pharmaceutical and medical device laws. His expertise in healthcare law earned him "Young Lawyer of the Year (In-House)" award at the ALB Japan Law Awards 2024, "In-House Award in the Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices, and Healthcare Services Category" at the JILA Inhouse Legal Awards 2024, and GC Powerlist Japan 2024.

Natsuko Kato, Principal Legal Counsel, Medtronic, Co., Ltd.

Natsuko Kato is an experienced in-house counsel specializing in healthcare law. With a deep understanding of both legal and business needs, she has played a pivotal role in ensuring that legal and ethical standards are upheld within healthcare organizations. Natsuko's expertise includes navigating complex regulatory environments and providing strategic legal advice to support organizational goals. Her commitment to excellence and supportive attitude towards the business have earned her recognition within the company. Outside of work, Natsuko enjoys staying active through yoga and golf, which help her maintain a balanced and healthy lifestyle. 

Satoshi Shinkuma, Director, Member of the Audit Committee, Itsumo, Inc.

Satoshi Shinkuma is Director and Member of the Audit Committee of itsumo, inc., an e-commerce support company. Satoshi chairs its Nominating and Remuneration Committee, too.

Before joining itsumo, inc., Satoshi was General Manager of Legal and Compliance at Toridoll Holdings Corporation, operating fast casual restaurants such as Marugame Udon. Satoshi has been involved in many M&A cases in Toridoll, especially Tamjai, Hong Kong based Yunnan noodle restaurants, which was acquired in 2018 and listed on the Main Board of Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2021.

Satoshi is also an independent Audit and Supervisory Board Member of Day Break Co. Ltd. and an attorney at Aurora Law Office. Satoshi specialized in corporate governance and he teaches at Kobe University and Okayama University.

Takashi Kobayashi, Geographic Compliance & Corporate - Legal Lead, Japan, Accenture Japan Ltd. 

Takashi Kobayashi is the Legal Lead for Japan Geographic Compliance & Corporate of Accenture. He oversees compliance, regulatory and corporate governance issues in Japan. In addition to traditional compliance issues such as anti-corruption, data privacy and competition, he has been focusing on ethical issues in new technologies such as AI.

Prior to joining Accenture in 2017, he was a senior associate of Freshfields’ Tokyo office where he supported domestic and international clients in investigation, dispute and other compliance matters. He is a co-author of “Understanding to Global Arbitration” (Shoji-homu), “Understanding to Global Investigation” (Shoji-homu), “Legal and Risk Management for New Directors and Officers” (Shoji-homu) and others.