Wada & Watanabe

The firm: Wada & Watanabe, formerly Abe, Wada & Watanabe, was established over 30 years ago. The firm focuses on five areas of law: corporate law, cross-border law, intellectual property, labour and employment law, and dispute resolution. The firm’s guiding principle is to provide practical advice and meticulous analysis based on the most up-to-date expert knowledge in a timely manner and at a reasonable price. Since its establishment, the firm has provided finely tuned legal advice that matches each of its clients’ individual circumstances. Wada & Watanabe currently comprises five Japanese attorneys and one foreign communications specialist. Since most of its clients are international companies, the firm regularly communicates with clients in English. Its services are not limited simply to providing formalistic interpretations of the law; it also provides pragmatic legal services, taking into consideration the specific factors underlying a dispute, by offering strategic opinions and analyses that will lead to the optimum result and resolution for the client.

Areas of practice
Corporate law: the firm handles matters related to the establishment of a company, increase of capital, business transfer, share transfer, procedures to purchase treasury shares, changes in directors, amendments of articles of incorporation, liquidations, and measures for shareholder meetings. It provides advice and analysis concerning the establishment of LLCs, LLPs and silent partnerships (Tokumei Kumiai (TK)); advises on M&As and restructuring; anti-monopoly law and foreign exchange law; product liability law; compliance and risk management; regulations relating to advertising for goods and services; and prepares transactional documents and analysis of regulations related thereto.

Cross-border legal issues: for foreign companies doing business in Japan, the firm assists with the establishment of subsidiaries and branch offices and related procedures under laws such as the anti-monopoly law and the foreign exchange law; prepares meeting minutes and the like; handles commercial registry procedures; deals with negotiations for alliances with Japanese companies; and prepares various types of agreements such as distributor agreements and license agreements. The firm also handles due diligence, trading partner bankruptcy and debt collection.

Intellectual property: the firm provides a full set of services related to trade marks, including trade mark prosecution, enforcement of trade mark rights such as drafting warning letters, filing criminal complaints, and representing clients before Japanese Customs. The firm represents clients for copyright infringement cases, violations of the Unfair Competition Prevention Law, and advises on publicity rights, character licensing, and the control of business secrets.

Employment: the firm also provides labour and employment law-related matters for international corporate clients. For instance, the firm has handled numerous employee dismissal cases, assisted in securing removal of company directors, participated in numerous labour tribunal proceedings and prepared numerous employment law related documents, such as rules of employment, employment contracts, severance agreements, employee manuals, policy handbooks, etc for foreign and Japanese clients.

Dispute resolution: the firm aggressively handles litigation matters involving corporate law, cross-border issues, intellectual property and employment/ labour issues.