What are the most significant cases or transactions that you have been involved in over the past year?

Our legal & IP division consists of three regional teams: Tokyo, Los Angeles, and London. While each of them has the autonomy of day-to-day operations, the teams have been striving to be aligned and collaborate under the shared concept of a global alliance. A momentous event I hosted last year was the “Square Enix Legal Summit 2023,” the first gathering of the teams since the pandemic, where all lawyers, IP specialists, data and privacy experts, paralegals, and operational staff got together in Tokyo and discussed various issues and challenges to tackle together.

Based on your experience, what is the key to collaborating successfully with business partners?

An in-depth understanding of business. I often say to my team: “you are an integral part of this business and you have a phenomenal skill set because you understand the law. However, not only do you understand the law, you understand business, so make sure you give your business view as well. This company is as much yours as it is the development team’s or the sales team’s or the marketing team’s; it’s your business and you must contribute to it. The more you learn about the business—about how it operates, how it works, what the concerns are, what the challenges are—the more you’ll be able to tailor your advice to help them. If you help them achieve their objectives, the company succeeds.”

How do you motivate and manage the other members of your legal team well?　

We’ve been quite clear in terms of having a clear vision and mission in relation to our strategic objectives that are shared among the three regional teams. We’ve built on those objectives to make sure that we focus on high-value, important, strategic work—work that really makes a difference to the business.