From left: Shuichi Sugahisa, Michio Suzuki and Junya Ae
Atsumi & Sakai has deepened its competition and antitrust bench with the onboarding of former Japan Fair Trade Commission’s secretary general, Shuichi Sugahisa, as a senior consultant, together with new partners Junya Ae and Michio Suzuki in Tokyo.
Tatsuo Yamashima, a managing partner at Atsumi & Sakai, told Asia Business Law Journal that the addition of the new senior consultant and partners would create significant synergies, particularly in transaction-related competition matters as well as in M&A and corporate restructuring.
“Since around 2011, when international cartel enforcement surged globally, we have invested heavily in strengthening our competition practice,” said Yamashima.
The most senior of the new additions to the competition bench is Sugahisa, who was most recently a senior consultant and a member of the antitrust and competition practice group at Baker McKenzie’s Tokyo office.
As a former secretary general of the JFTC, Sugahisa has been engaged in competition law practice and policy with a focus on the Antimonopoly Act and other related laws for more than 40 years since joining the JFTC in 1983. Two years before joining Baker McKenzie in 2022, Sugahisa assumed the role as secretary general having served in roles including director general of the economic affairs bureau in 2017. During his close to 40-year tenure at the JFTC, he worked on key regulatory reforms including the 2002 amendment of the Antimonopoly Act, and the 2017 revision of the guidelines for distribution and trade practices.
Also moving to Atsumi & Sakai from Baker McKenzie is Ae, who was an equity partner within Baker McKenzie’s global partnership while also serving as the co-leader of the antitrust and competition practice. He focuses on regulatory issues, especially in antitrust and competition law, and assists Japanese and international clients in international and domestic cartel investigations, as well as multijurisdictional M&A transaction-related merger control matters.
Suzuki, one of the two new partners at Atsumi & Sakai, was a partner at Baker McKenzie’s Tokyo office and a member of the antitrust and competition group while also belonging to the corporate and M&A practice. He focuses on transaction-related regulatory matters including merger control, foreign direct investment and foreign subsidies regulation.
“Going forward, we will continue to leverage our enhanced Tokyo competition team, our Brussels presence, and our partnerships with leading firms worldwide to deliver top-tier cross-border transactional and competition solutions,” said Yamashima.
