Morrison & Foerster is the largest and most diversified international law firm in Japan, with 130 lawyers, including 50 Japanese lawyers, in Tokyo.
Morrison & Foerster was one of the first international law firms to be licensed in Japan, opening in 1987. Today, our Tokyo office is one of Japan’s six largest law offices (domestic or international). 80 of our Tokyo-based lawyers are either Japanese or fluent in Japanese.
Our Tokyo office has been broadly recognized for excellence in legal services. Among other things, we were:
- Named Japan International Law Firm of the Year by Chambers Asia Pacific Awards 2013.
- Recognized by Chambers Asia Pacific 2013, in more top-tier practice rankings (and more top-tier leading individuals) than any other international firm in Tokyo. We are top-tier ranked for Corporate/M&A, Dispute Resolution, Intellectual Property, Investment Funds, Real Estate and Tax. Four of our Tokyo lawyers are ranked in the elite Star Individual category, a ranking given to lawyers with exceptional recommendations in their field. A further nine attorneys are ranked in Band 1.
- Designated International Deal Firm of the Year, IP Law Firm of the Year and Litigation Law Firm of the Year by Asian Legal Business (ALB) Japan Law Awards 2013.
- Recommended by the 2014 edition of International Financial Law Review’s IFLR1000 in four different practice areas – M&A (both local and foreign law), capital markets: debt and equity (both local and foreign law), capital markets: structured finance and securitization, banking, and project finance.
- Exclusive winner in the litigation and intellectual property categories for Japan in the 2011 International Law Office's Client Choice Award for excellence in client service (based on a survey of 2,000 in-house counsel).
The American Lawyer featured our Tokyo office as its cover story in which it acknowledged the strength of our firm in Japan, stating: “Morrison & Foerster's decade of growth in Tokyo looks like a model for the future.”
Our firm clients in Tokyo include many of Japan’s most substantial and active companies, including Astellas, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Mitsui & Co., Nikon, Novartis, NTT DoCoMo, NTT Data, Panasonic, Rakuten, Ricoh, Softbank, Sumitomo, TDK and Toshiba. The firm also serves Japan's major financial investors and institutions such as Carlyle, Intel Capital, Mizuho Financial Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Morgan Stanley and TPG.