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

Tadashi Koizumi, as Chief Legal Officer Japan has led the legal department of MetLife Japan as both strategic partner for business and guardian to protect company’s brand from legal, regulatory, and reputational risks. The legal team has advanced the company’s five-year plan and key initiatives including support for product development, distribution, investment, and finance. Additionally, the team resolved significant pending litigations favorably for the company through close collaboration with business partners and outside counsel. Beyond addressing specific issues, the legal team provided training to business partners based on the lesson learnt aiming for enhanced company processes.

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

The key to successful collaboration with business partners is a clear understanding of their goals, strategies, and overall business principles. To enhance our culture of engagement, Legal Affairs has established four key principles: Be Connected, Be Proactive, Be Visible and Be Open and Embrace Feedback. As part of these initiatives, our department regularly invites business leaders to all Japan legal meetings to ensure alignment on business priorities. Additionally, the legal team has launched customised onsite training for business partners upon request, enabling earlier intervention for better legal risk management whilst driving growth.

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

As CLO Japan, I manage the team by enhancing their technical and leadership skills and providing the team with learning experiences. This has led to MetLife Legal Affairs evolving into a best-in-class, contemporary, and commercial law department where our people can grow and thrive. Since last year, we have been assigning cross-functional work to legal associates for the sake of both career development and sustainability. We also encourage an initiative called ‘Removing Pebbles’, which involves revisiting and addressing issues in our processes to improve efficiency. This initiative focuses on employee and customer care, making our operations smoother and freeing up time to focus on meaningful work and delivering for customers. As a result, Legal has proactively engaged in these activities, and some of our associates have received company recognition.