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Sakon Kuramoto

Senior Associate

Tokyo

Sakon is an attorney at law admitted to practice in Japan as well as New York, USA. He has been engaged in ESG/SDGs/Business and Human Rights + Environment, VC/Startup, M&A, and Compliance from a strategic perspective, paying attention to both domestic and international aspects based on the needs of Japanese companies expanding overseas.

Among others, as a lawyer specializing in ESG/SDGs/Business and Human Rights, he supports the corporate clients for human rights/environmental due diligence.

He is based in Tokyo and focuses his practice on assisting various companies, and has experience working in the United States and Singapore as well. He has represented a lot of companies in numerous investments and M&A transactions in Japan, the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia.

As a lawyer specializing in ESG/SDGs/Business and Human Rights + Environment & Climate Change, he is well versed in laws and regulations of various countries to ensure proper supply chain management, international norms and standards related to SDGs, ESGs, and "business and human rights," as well as relevant ILO conventions, and provides support for the promotion of ESG/Impact Investing. He also supports the promotion of ESG/Impact Investing.

He also advises Japanese companies on how to deal with women, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ employees from the perspective of promoting stakeholder relations and DI&E (Diversity, Inclusion & Equality) management. From the standpoint of a corporate lawyer, he also assists Japanese companies with the proper handling of foreign workers, including technical interns.

He was appointed by the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games as a candidate for the Advisory Committee for the Reporting System based on the Tokyo 2020 Code of Sustainable Procurement.

He is also an expert member of the "Platform for Responsible Acceptance of Foreign Workers" (JP-MIRAI), whose secretariat is managed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

He is one of the founders and Steering Committee Officers of the Business and Human Rights Lawyers Japan.

He received the Excellence Award of the 6th "Shin Nihon Hoki Foundation Incentive Award".

  • Sakon’s engagements include the representation of:

    • Rakuten, Inc. in connection with its US$100 million participation in the $350 million Series C financing round of Rakuten Aspyrian, Inc.;
    • WHILL, Inc. in connection with the US$45 million Series C financing round;
    • Ascent Robotics with the US$10 million Series A financing round;
    • FRONTEO, Inc. with its US$22 million issuance of bonds with stock acquisition rights;
    • Zensho Holdings Co., Ltd. in connection with its acquisition of Long John Silver’s franchise from Asia Pacific Food Pte. Ltd.;
    • BlackRock Japan Co., Ltd. and BlackRock Securities Co., Ltd. in connection with a group restructuring project consisting of merger transaction and capital increase;
    • Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Limited in its acquisition of a 51% equity interest in Air Tiger Express Companies, Inc.;
    • Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. in connection with M&A transaction between Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Nikko Cordial Securities Inc. and Nikko Citigroup Ltd.;
    • MSK Corporation in connection with Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd.'s acquisition of a two-thirds equity interest in MSK Corporation; and
    • UFJ Holdings in connection with its subsidiatires' merger and corporate split transactions with Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Groups' subsidiaries.