Kenji Hosokawa

Kenji is a corporate attorney and advises clients in Japan, the U.S., and other jurisdictions on a range of transactions, including U.S. public offerings and stock exchange listings, American Depositary Share programs, private placements, block trades, sovereign financings, privatizations, and public and private M&A transactions.

As a native speaker of both English and Japanese, Kenji is involved in a large number of global offerings conducted by Japanese issuers, whether as the issuer’s counsel or underwriters’ counsel. He has advised more than 30 J-REITs and their asset managers, as well as investment banks on the EU Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD), the Swiss Federal Act on Collective Investment Schemes, and other European regulatory rules. He advises the government of Japan and various government-owned financial institutions on SEC filings and registered debt offerings.

Kenji also advises on compliance with U.S. disclosure, reporting, and corporate governance requirements, as well as with the U.S. Volcker Rule and economic sanctions programs. Most recently, he has been involved in initial coin offerings (ICOs) and registration of cryptocurrency exchanges.

At Columbia Law School, Kenji was a Kent Scholar and senior editor of The Columbia Law Review. Before joining us, he founded and ran an online venture based in Massachusetts. Currently, he is a part-time lecturer on international finance at Sophia University Law School. He also previously served as the president of the Dartmouth Club of Japan, and was the first international member of the Dartmouth Communities Executive Council.

In his pro bono practice, Kenji has advised a global healthcare fund, a global environmental conservation group, a human rights organization, a project dedicated to eradicating sex trafficking, a company that provides AI-based anti-litter services, Japan’s largest LGBTA business professional network, and a Karuizawa-based international school that has been certified as a UWC school. He is also a member of a working group developing a platform for social impact financing in Japan, and serves as a partner of Social Venture Partners Tokyo, a network that aims to accelerate social entrepreneurship in Japan.

Representative Experience

• Mitsui Fudosan Logistics Park in its approximately ¥35.2 billion global offering, representing the underwriters.
• Japan Display Inc.’s approximately ¥35 billion global follow-on offering to overseas financial institutional investors and a domestic business partner.
• Toshiba and Innovation Network Corporation of Japan on their US$2.4 billion divestiture of Landis+Gyr Group AG. The divestiture involved a dual-track process (M&A auction sale and global share offering), and was completed through an initial public offering of Landis+Gyr’s shares in Switzerland and concurrent unregistered offerings to institutional investors in the U.S. and other jurisdictions globally.
• Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a Japanese Incorporated Administrative Agency, in its SEC-registered shelf registration and global offerings.
• Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. in its approximately ¥31.7 billion offering, representing the underwriters.
• Acucela Inc.’s US$140 million initial public offering on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers market, in which we represented SBI Holdings, Inc., Acucela’s second-largest shareholder. Acucela is the first U.S. company to go public in Japan while filing with the U.S. SEC a Form S-1 registration statement as an “emerging growth company” under the U.S. JOBS Act.
• Japan Hotel REIT Investment Corporation’s global offerings, representing the issuer and its asset manager.
• Nomura Real Estate Master Fund, Inc. in its ¥161 billion global IPO, representing the issuer and its asset manager.
• AEON REIT Investment Corporation in its global IPO and follow-on global offerings, representing the issuer and its asset manager.
• Activia Properties Inc. in its global IPO and follow-on global offerings, representing the issuer and its asset manager.