Investigation in connection with construction work on garbage incinerators

Kozo’s anti-trust/competition practice covers every area of the practice, i.e., violation cases such as cartel and unilateral conduct, merger regulations, and compliance to prevent violations of Japanese and foreign competition laws. Kozo continues to be recognized by international law journals as one of the top practitioners in Japan in the area of competition law. He has handled large scale international cartel cases and has contributed to the realization of prominent merger regulations. In the area of international trade law, Kozo is widely recognized as a pioneer of trade law practice in Japan and has advised both the private sector and governmental agencies. He has been involved in most of the trade remedy investigations, such as those for the imposition of anti-dumping duties and subsidy countervailing duties as counsel to Japanese and foreign clients, and in some overseas trade remedy investigations to defend Japanese clients. In addition, Kozo’s practice covers international disputes, corporate crisis management, and regulatory investigations.

Hiroyasu Konno specializes in the energy and natural resources sector, mainly in the upstream and middle-stream sectors, such as projects and transactions regarding LNG, biomass fuels, coal, rare metals, copper ore, petroleum, and other minerals in the world, as well as the down-stream sectors such as transactions regarding electricity and gas in Japan. He has a breadth of knowledge about industrial practices and policy trends, through his experience working as a secondee, or temporary worker, at Nippon Oil (currently ENEOS), JOGMEC (Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (currently Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security))，and JERA, in addition to an energy and natural resources team in a foreign law firm, as well as experience from being a committee member of relevant governmental panels. He always endeavors to provide clients with legal services with additional value, including managerial perspectives. He handles all kinds of legal issues related to the energy and natural resources sector, by closely working together with N&A’s experts in each sector. He also actively works on legal issues with regard to “carbon”, such as CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage), transactions of carbon credits, and others.

Kazuyuki (“Kaz”) Ichiba focuses on dispute resolution in large and complex cases, especially disputes over finance, construction, and natural resources and energy matters. He has advised clients in litigation and mediation before Japanese courts, as well as in international arbitration and mediation. He also works together with law firms outside of Japan. He prefers the method of creating solutions through discussions with the client.