Japanese investments into S-E Asia pave way for Japan-Singapore legal alliances

Singapore

TWO of Japan's Big Four law firms are moving into partnerships with Singapore practices, in what the lawyers say mirrors the increase in Japanese investments into the region.

For a long time, China has been the port of call for Japanese firms looking to venture abroad. In recent years, however, more are looking further afield to South-east Asia, said lawyer David Ong, who heads Singapore's DOP Law Corporation.

The coronavirus pandemic may further fuel the Japanese push across South-east Asia, he added.

To help Japan's economy ride out the crisis and reduce risks of supply chain disruptions, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in April unveiled a massive stimulus package, which includes a US$2.4 billion support fund to help Japanese businesses bring manufacturing back to Japan from China, or to move it to other countries in South-east Asia.

Mr Ong's firm recently announced a foreign law alliance with Japanese Big Four firm Anderson Mori & Tomotsune (AMT), which first set up shop in Singapore in 2013.

The alliance, which commenced in July, aims to strengthen AMT's presence in Singapore and South-east Asia, while giving DOP Law Corporation opportunities to advise a wider pool of Japanese clients. Both firms handle matters like mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, and dispute resolution, among others.

Singapore's regulations allow firms that have entered into such alliances to share certain resources such as office premises, client information and co-branding, while still operating as independent entities.

Another such pact recently announced is between Japan's largest law firm Nishimura & Asahi and local practice Bayfront Law, dubbed the Nishimura & Asahi-Bayfront Law Alliance. Bayfront Law managing director Kesavan Nair said both firms started working together in late 2017 on commercial and dispute resolution matters, and started contemplating the possibility of an alliance in early 2019.

DOP's Mr Ong, who received his tertiary education in Japan in the 1970s and speaks Japanese fluently, said: "Before this, I was already working on matters with many Japanese firms. Forming an alliance made sense because it gives these clients a 'one-stop shop' for various services."

"It also gives our younger associates some international exposure, and perhaps a chance to practise at AMT's branches in Japan," he added.

AMT's Singapore-based partner Atsutoshi Maeda said the Republic's corporate-friendly policies and relative stability make it well-placed as a hub for investments into the region.

Already, Japan is leading the infrastructure race in South-east Asia, with projects in the region's six largest economies - Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam - valued at US$367 billion, almost one-and-a-half times that of China's infrastructure investment of US$255 billion in the region, according to a Fitch Solutions report last year.

Said Mr Maeda: "In addition, Japanese business community foresees the deepening of economic relationship with most of the Asean countries, especially with the member states of the TPP11 (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership)."

Bayfront's Mr Nair highlighted a growing number of Japanese corporations choosing Singapore as a forum for dispute resolution and governing law for commercial contracts. "We expect that Singapore will continue to be the centre of merger and acquisition activities and Japanese related arbitrations," he said.

"Further, investment opportunities by Singapore into Japan are also expected to grow particularly for Singapore investors in healthcare and hospitality sectors."

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