From left: Akitaka Anzai and S. Saravana Kumar
Anderson Mori & Tomotsune (AMT) has widened its Southeast Asia network with the launch of a Malaysia desk in Kuala Lumpur operating in a business collaboration with Malaysian law firm RDS Partnership, which comes amid Japanese companies expanding investment into the Southeast Asian nation in recent years.
Akitaka Anzai, partner and head of AMT’s Bangkok office who will concurrently lead the Malaysia desk, has experience in Malaysia, having been seconded to local law firm Zaid Ibrahim & Co in 2010. The firm has continuously been engaging in Malaysia-related work since then, but Anzai has told Asia Business Law Journal that legal needs from Japanese-led investment into Malaysia and Malaysian-led investment into Japan have been increasing even further in recent years.
“The establishment of the Malaysia desk is aimed at responding to needs for (legal) support across broad regions including not only the capital (Kuala Lumpur) area but also local cities, while strengthening a swift and practical Japanese-language advisory system,” said Anzai.
Last year, the Malaysian Investment Development Authority announced that Japanese-led foreign direct investment had “played a pivotal role in Malaysia’s economic success with 2,778 manufacturing projects worth a total of MYR91.89 billion (USD21.9 billion) implemented as of June 2023”.
Anzai – whose base remains in Bangkok covering the entire Southeast Asia region including Malaysia – will, depending on the local case, make frequent visits primarily to Kuala Lumpur to local lawyers and handle client matters. The desk, which is situated within RDS, is operated collaboratively by Anderson Mori’s lawyers based in Tokyo, and across its Southeast Asia offices in Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.
The Malaysia desk will support Japanese companies with market entry into Malaysia and post-entry legal issues. Specifically, besides market entry support services such as M&A, joint ventures, financial transactions, tax and customs, licence and regulatory approvals, engagement with authorities and dispute resolution, it will also handle post-entry practical legal matters including compliance and labour issues.
“While primarily supporting Japanese companies investing in Malaysia and those already operating local bases, we anticipate an increase in Malaysian companies investing in Japan and have already established the necessary framework to accommodate this,” said Anzai.
For RDS, the business collaboration with Anderson Mori formalises its relationship with the Tokyo-based law firm and was also a key part of RDS’ broader expansion as we continue to grow into one of Malaysia’s leading corporate and commercial law firms, partner Saravana Kumar told ABLJ.
“At RDS, we have seen a growing volume of cross-border activity involving Malaysian and foreign companies including those from Japan over the past few years from investments and joint ventures to technology collaborations and supply chain partnerships … By joining forces with AMT, we can offer clients even greater depth, reach and quality of service across various jurisdictions in this region,” said Kumar.
Kumar, who is the head of RDS’ tax, SST (sales & services tax) and customs practice, pointed to a noticeable uptick in Japanese investment in Malaysia, particularly in manufacturing, renewable energy and technology-related sectors. At the same time, more Malaysian companies are exploring partnerships with Japanese firms for innovation, market access and financing.
“We are also seeing continued interest in sustainable industries, digital transformation and supply chain diversification where these are the areas where Japanese companies bring strong technical expertise and where Malaysian businesses offer regional agility and cost advantages,” said Kumar.
“These trends are exactly what our collaboration with AMT is designed to support.”
