Japan’s Nishimura & Asahi is opening an office in Beijing and has formed an alliance with Soga, Uryu & Itoga (SUI) to target the Chinese market.
Nishimura, the largest of the Japanese ‘big four,’ has scheduled the launch for May 2010 and in anticipation has formed an East Asia practice and an alliance with SUI. Nishimura partner Saori Okada and an associate will be based in the new office working on a ‘legally non-exclusive basis’ alongside three lawyers in SUI’s own Beijing office, and potentially with SUI’s two lawyers in Shanghai.
The alliance is regarded as mutually beneficial – Nishimura will gain a well-established presence in China, SIU having been in Beijing since 2000. SUI on the other hand will broaden its international experience through Nishimura. “We’ve been working together in respects to anti-dumping matters initiated by the Chinese government against Japanese corporations for almost ten years, so we’re regarded very much as close friends,” said SUI managing partner, Takashi Soga.
Like other law firms around the world, Japanese firms are also looking to target the growing Chinese economy for an extra revenue stream, as Japanese companies broaden their operations in China. But Japanese law firms competing with arguably better resourced international firms may have an advantage up their sleeve. “Japan and China share a close relationship – if Japanese companies go overseas they’ll usually use English as their governing language but in China it’s both Japanese and Chinese and that’s a field where Japanese law firms have an ‘advantage’ where we can compete with [international] firms,” said Sogo.
SUI was formed in 2005 following a merger between Itoga-Soga and Cast Law and currently has 42 lawyers across three offices. Its China practice is principally focused on international trade work, with foreign investment in China consisting of around 60% of its work. It is also hoping to broaden its practice to infrastructure work in the future.
Although neither firm confirmed whether a future merger is on the cards, for now both China offices intend to work as independent firms. “We are not committed in a legal sense together but we’ll be closer friends more than ever,” said Sogo. “We haven’t started any talks of a merger or consolidation.”
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