Based on your experience, what is the key to collaborating successfully with business partners?
The key to successful collaboration with business partners is simple: legal members must understand the business. It goes without saying that legal members must understand the law. However, if you work for a company as an in-house lawyer, you must understand the business from top to bottom to truly function effectively. For instance, if you are giving legal advice about a plant, you must view the business from the same perspective as the people working in the plant.

Which political, economic or regulatory changes have impacted your work the most in the past year?

I think the punishment given to Nissan Motor Corporation by the Japan Fair Trade Commission for violating the Japan Subcontract Act had a huge impact for a lot of manufacturers. In our office, we also used e-learning to provide training on the Subcontract Act to our business members. I think the Japan Fair Trade Commission will continue to aggressively strengthen its crackdown in 2024 as well.