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

One year ago, we started expansion of the legal department of Sojitz Vietnam, so that Sojitz Vietnam can locally support the legal and compliance matters of group companies located in Vietnam. Currently, there are over 20 group companies in Vietnam including 15 active subsidiaries in which Sojitz owns majority interest. Legal and compliance support provided by Sojitz Vietnam covers new M&A deals, corporate issues, contract reviews, debt collection dispute compliance, and post-merger integration (PMI) process for newly acquired companies. My team was handling legal matters in relation to recent our acquisition of full ownership of the largest commercial food wholesaler in Vietnam and I am now carrying out PMI.

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

I am working with the legal members in Sojitz Vietnam and with in-house counsel in each Sojitz group company. There were few opportunities where those legal members interacted with each other and, therefore, each legal team was quite independent. Recently we started to organise a conference where group companies’ staff in charge of legal and compliance matters get together. At this conference, we invite external counsel to provide some training, share some important information, and exchange each company’s legal or compliance issues. Also, all members are invited to a global legal conference organised by the headquarters in Japan. Those conferences would be useful to share expertise and knowledge of the group companies and also make participants feel that they are a member of a big global legal or compliance team having talented members across the world. The size of the legal team of each group company is not so big but we are trying to connect each other which would motivate legal members and also enhance their engagement to Sojitz group.

What is a cause, business-related or otherwise, that you are passionate about, and why?

My current assignment is to establish and expand legal and compliance function locally in Vietnam. Previously all legal matters were basically handled independently by each group of companies supervised by each business division. This is a significant change and, therefore, is a new challenge for Sojitz legal. The ultimate goal is to make legal and compliance management of the group companies better. I have to say that Vietnam is not an easy country in terms of legal and compliance, however, it is one of the most focused countries in the Sojitz group. Currently Sojitz group is conducting various businesses in Vietnam, such as food or consumer goods distribution, manufacturer of fertilizer, paper products, and animal feed, warehousing business, energy distribution, and retail businesses. I have realised that my assignment is much more difficult than expected as our team needs to cover various fields. Without overcoming legal or compliance difficulties, we cannot be successful in the current and future business. I am excited to challenge this difficult assignment which, I believe, would definitely contribute to the business success of Sojitz group.