Why this seat is different in Japan
In-house legal work in Japan does not require bar admission. Many of the strongest in-house lawyers are legal professionals (法務) who never sat the bar exam, and many bar-admitted lawyers (弁護士) have spent their careers in firms and have never run a legal function. Foreign-qualified lawyers who advise on their home law must be registered as 外国法事務弁護士. Decide whether you need a 弁護士, a foreign qualification, or a competent legal leader, because each is a different pool and the first is the smallest.
The work is Japanese-language and Japanese-law first. Contracts with customers, distributors and suppliers are drafted in Japanese; the Subcontract Act (下請法) and the Anti-Monopoly Act govern how you treat suppliers and distributors; the Act on the Protection of Personal Information (個人情報保護法) governs data; the Companies Act governs board minutes, shareholder resolutions and registrations; and the industry statute (for pharma and devices, the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Act) governs what you can say and sell. Group policy and English-language templates sit on top. The General Counsel reconciles the two.
Compliance is often bundled in. In a subsidiary of 50 to 500 people the General Counsel typically runs compliance, anti-bribery, whistleblowing and anti-social-forces screening, and in financial services the regulated compliance programme may sit here or separately. Say which.
Purpose of the role
Lead legal affairs for the Japan entity: protect the company in contracts, governance, regulation and disputes; make Japanese law workable inside global policy; advise the Managing Director and leadership team; and manage outside counsel to a budget.
Key responsibilities
Commercial and contracts
- Draft, negotiate and manage customer, distributor, supplier and partnership agreements in Japanese and English.
- Maintain templates and playbooks that let the business move without a lawyer in every room.
Corporate and governance
- Run board and shareholder resolutions, commercial registrations and corporate records under the Companies Act.
- Support M&A, restructuring and integration with outside counsel.
Regulatory and compliance
- Advise on industry regulation, competition law, subcontracting rules, data protection and anti-bribery.
- Run or support the compliance programme, whistleblowing channel and investigations where in scope.
Employment and disputes
- Partner HR on exits, disputes and policy, and manage litigation and regulatory proceedings with outside counsel.
Management
- Lead the legal team where there is one, manage the outside-counsel panel and budget, and report to the regional General Counsel in English.
Candidate profile
Must have
- Ten or more years of legal experience with at least five in-house in Japan at a foreign-capital company.
- Command of Japanese contract, corporate, competition and data-protection law in practice.
- Experience advising a Managing Director and a leadership team directly.
- Management of outside counsel to a budget.
Preferred
- 弁護士 or foreign bar admission, if the role requires it.
- Industry regulation experience matching the business.
- Compliance programme leadership.
- M&A or integration support in Japan.
Language
- Japanese at native level for drafting, negotiation and regulators.
- English at business level for the regional General Counsel, group policy and English-law templates.
Decide before you post
- Bar admission required, preferred or irrelevant.
- Compliance in or out, and regulated compliance in particular.
- Team or sole-charge.
- Reporting line and who sets pay and evaluation.
- Outside-counsel budget and which firms are on the panel.
How hard is this hire
Moderate to hard. Bilingual in-house lawyers with ten years and leadership experience are a known group, mostly already at foreign-capital companies, and they move for title, scope and HQ exposure more than for pay. Expect three to five months. Requiring 弁護士 admission for a role that does not need it typically halves the pool.
Interview questions that separate candidates
- Tell me about a distributor agreement you restructured. What did the Subcontract Act or the Anti-Monopoly Act require you to change?
- Describe a dispute you managed to resolution. What did it cost and what did you change afterwards?
- How do you reconcile a global template with Japanese law when the two conflict?
- Walk me through an investigation you ran under the whistleblowing channel.
- What do you keep in-house and what do you send to outside counsel, and why?
