Japanese firms,” says Orrick’s
Winning over such clients is an incremental process.
“You ask if they need a second opinion, have conflicts, or
just want to discuss industry issues,” says Weeks. “It’s a
time-consuming process, though. It’s not like China, where
you can fly around and meet a bunch of fortysomething
CEOs who are all ready to do an IPO.”
The international firms that are most successful in Japan
are generally led by partners with decades of experience in
the country and who speak fluent Japanese, such as MoFo’s
Siegel, Simpson’s Sneider, and White & Case’s Robert
Grondine. Former Cleary managing partner Mark Walker
has attributed the failure of the firm’s Tokyo office to never
having had experienced Japan hands leading its practice
[“Flubbing Japan, Trying Again in China,” Winter 2011].
Mies points out that numbers matter, too. “It’s hard to
go into a Japanese client without really having a decent size
here,” he says. “They’re used to the way it’s done here with
very large teams.”
But finding the right people in any quantity is sure to
become more and more difficult in the years to come. U.S.
students are more likely to be practicing Mandarin than
Japanese these days. And unlike China and Korea, Japan
lacks a large overseas immigrant population to provide a
Continued from page 23—
It’s not like China, where you can fly
around and meet a bunch of forty-
something CEOs who are all ready to
do an IPO,” says Orrick’s Weeks.
steady supply of bilingual, bicultural professionals to the
motherland. The ready availability of Chinese American
lawyers is no doubt a factor in the much broader push into
China by U.S. law firms. Not surprisingly, bengoshi who
speak fluent English are in great demand. But there are
not many. Even though Japanese students are required to
study English for several years, very few learn to speak it
well enough to communicate in a business context. “We
hire very brilliant young lawyers, fresh graduates from the
top Japanese law schools, who say they are really eager to
be a good international business lawyer and work on cross-
border matters,” says Muto. “So we believe them and hire
them, and then they don’t speak English!”
Meanwhile, fewer Japanese students than ever are going
to study abroad. An April 2010 Washington Post article
caused a stir in Tokyo expat circles when it reported that
only one Japanese student had entered Harvard University
as an undergraduate the previous fall. According to the
Institute of International Education, China, India, Korea,
and Taiwan all have more students in the U.S. than Japan:
China and India send more than 100,000 each, and Korea
sends 72,000, compared to only 25,000 from Japan.
“Young people don’t feel they have to go abroad,” says
Muto. “You can have a comfortable life in Japan speaking
Orrick’s L. Mark Weeks:
Winning the loyalty of Japanese
clients “is a time-consuming
process.”
Skadden’s Michael Mies:
“It’s hard to [land] a Japanese
client without really having a
decent size here.”
only Japanese and working only with Japanese clients. It’s
easy, and you don’t have to deal with cultural differences.”
THE LACK OF INTEREST AMONG YOUNG JAPA-
nese in studying or working abroad reflects a broader cul-
tural insularity that remains a major worry for international
lawyers servicing the Japan market. Muto says Japanese
companies, like the country’s young people, are prone to
thinking it’s easier and more comfortable to just stay in
Japan, despite the low growth. “There’s good infrastructure
and a stable environment here,” he says, “and they don’t
have to deal with language and other issues.”
Some companies may have tried going overseas before,
only to retreat. “There is a bit of a love-hate thing with
China,” says Strawn, recalling several manufacturing joint
ventures that fell apart. “I seem to have spent as much time
getting Japanese companies out of China as in.” He notes,
too, that over the last few years, Japanese corporations
increasingly want their legal advice in Japanese, a preference
that runs counter to the trend at many Asian and European
companies of transacting most business in English.
