About

What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years?

During the past two years, I have been involved in the transfer of Sony’s battery business to a multinational corporation headquartered in Japan with the sales price amounting to approximately ¥17.5bn. I also handled the transfer of an equity interest of a Sony entity in China to a Chinese public company listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, with the consideration for the transfer being approximately US$234m.

How do you suggest in-house lawyers build strong relationships with business partners?

I suggest in-house lawyers speak the same language as business partners. Specifically, in-house lawyers should make a deep dive into what most concerns business partners in the short term as well as in the long run. [They should also explore] how they make their business strategies, how and what business partners want to achieve their business targets and KPIs associated therewith, and what business models and processes are there to facilitate business partners to make revenues, and ultimately, to make profits. In short, in-house lawyers need to think and advise business partners by putting themselves in their shoes, and stay hungry for opportunities to help business partners drive the business forward.

Have any new laws, regulations or judicial decisions greatly impacted your company’s business or your legal practice?

There are 15 legal counsel and compliance professionals in my legal and compliance team. As China is moving at a very fast pace in its legal and regulatory landscape, we set up a small task force to monitor legal and regulatory as well as judicial developments in China. More recently, we have been closely following the newly promulgated Chinese Foreign Investment Law as well as other regulations and rules associated with the implementation of this new law. In addition to my responsibilities for legal and compliance matters, I am in charge of information security and privacy management for Sony in China. My information security and privacy management teams keep a close eye on legislative and enforcement developments in China, in particular in the context of the implementation of Chinese cybersecurity law.

When selecting a law firm, what criteria do you evaluate the potential firms by?

While there are many ways to evaluate outside counsel candidates, we apply the following as the top three criteria for our evaluation of outside counsel candidates: Specific industry knowledge and experience.

Business-oriented and solution-driven support and services. Responsiveness by the partner-in-charge and their service team. In addition, we have been increasingly interested in learning how outside counsel deploy legal tech to bolster their efforts in terms of continuous improvement of efficiency and effectiveness of their client services.

What would you say are the unique qualities required to be successful as an in-house lawyer in your industry?

One of the key elements for the success of an in-house lawyer is to understand the company that they serve and the industry that their company operates in. In this sense, strong business acumen is required for a successful in-house lawyer. As part of corporate governance of a company, an in-house lawyer needs to play a gatekeeper role in defending and protecting the company. On top of that, a successful in-house lawyer must be someone that manages to change their role from gatekeeper to bridge-builder with a problem solving focus. Lastly, a great in-house lawyer goes beyond spotting legal issues to help the company take well-informed risks and drive innovative solutions to advance the business.

In what ways do you see the in-house legal role evolving in your region over the next few years?

In-house lawyers take a holistic view of managing enterprise risks and working with the business team to assess and make commercial decisions and advance corporate strategy. In this context, I believe that an in-house lawyer will be tasked with a greater array of responsibilities in the years to come. I have seen and continue to see that besides their primary role and responsibility in the legal field, in-house lawyers take on new and additional assignments and challenges, ranging from compliance, privacy, internal audit, risk management, government affairs to business development, and even general business leadership roles.

What will be the main focus for the company in the next 12 months and how do you intend to assist with this?

The company will work hard to create new values with a synergy of innovative technologies, entertainment content and direct to customer services. As a result, technology-driven hardware products, which offer premium experiences, bountiful entertainment content catering to varied tastes and comprehensive services provided to Sony fans in the Chinese market, are the key areas of our business focus. My entire team and I will support Sony’s sustainable development and growth in China while managing risks in the areas of legal, compliance, information security and privacy management, and delivering high-quality, cost-effective and solution-driven professional services.

FOCUS ON… A path forward for a successful in-house lawyer. A top in-house lawyer must be a particularly trustworthy strategic adviser, who the board of directors and top management of the company have confidence in, and are willing to listen to. Besides, forward-thinking business language and professional skills are all equally important elements that a top in-house lawyer should possess, in order to create values for the company and to achieve professional growth and career advancement. I remain steadfast in my belief that the key attributes of a successful in-house lawyer include being decisive, setting strategies, executing for results, leading teams, building relationships and using influence, learning, thinking and motivating, all of which I spare no effort to pursue.