Practice Experience
Yuji Ogiwara, a licensed Japanese attorney (bengoshi) since April 1995, joined White & Case Tokyo in December 2001. Yuji, who heads our employment practice, is a seasoned and powerful litigator with over fifteen years of experience in Japanese employment litigation, labor negotiations and compliance matters. Working daily with White & Case's global team of employment lawyers, Yuji advises multinational headquarters on cross-border solutions to international employment law challenges.
He also advises on a broad range of issues, including corporate matters, mergers and acquisitions, business tie-ups and commercial trade, and the antitrust issues that arise from such transactions and unfair trade practices. He provides advice on corporate risk management, i.e., intellectual property disputes and products liability issues.
Yuji speaks Japanese and English, and has some knowledge of Chinese. He spent one year at White & Case's San Francisco office from 2004 to 2005. He is a graduate of the Tokyo University Law Faculty (LL.B.), and the Legal Research and Training Institute of the Supreme Court of Japan. Before his admission to the bar in 1995, he worked at a major commercial bank.
Prior to joining the Firm, Yuji worked for a large law office in Tokyo for six years and at the Shanghai branch of that law office for one year.
Chambers Asia has named Yuji as a leading Employment lawyer since 2009 and recognized him as a leading Dispute Resolution lawyer (2011). He is likewise mentioned by Asia Pacific Legal 500 in both the Intellectual Property and Dispute Resolution categories, for Japan.
Select representative employment and labor matters:
- Representation of a multinational whitegoods corporation, in the employment and labor issues arising from its acquisition of a Japanese corporation's consumer appliances business in Japan and Southeast Asia.
- Representation of the Japanese subsidiary of a global pharmaceutical company, on issues relating to non-compete and confidentiality provisions in the former employment contracts of our client's employees.
- Representation of a global pharmaceutical company before the Japanese labor tribunal over collective bargaining issues that arose in relation to its sale of a business division to a private equity firm.
- Representation of a global automotive supplier, in all employment law matters in Japan, arising out of its acquisition of the Japanese subsidiary of a German automotive manufacturer.
Select representative litigation matters:
- Representation of a Japanese food and beverage operator in JPY 27 bilion dispute concerning payment of the purchase price of shares arising out of the sale of a business unit.
- Representation of the Japanese subsidiary of a leading French automotive parts manufacturer in breach of warranty and tort claims for product defect liability against a Japanese automotive parts manufacturer.
- Representation of a US based clothing retailer and its wholly owned subsidiary in Japan, against alleged breach of contract claims involving the Japanese and Korean luxury goods apparel markets, in the Tokyo District Court.
- Representation of the claimants, manufacturers of medical equipment, in a dispute with a Japanese joint venture partner, concerning trade debts and breaches of the joint venture agreement.
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