| Sayako Tsukamoto City-Yuwa Partners (Japan) Global Internship Program Participant |
1. Describe your practice
I focus on labor law and have assisted many foreign clients with Japanese law. At City-Yuwa Partners I am also a member of our German Practice which is led by our WLG Key Contact Partner Mikio Tanaka. Therefore, I am also involved in many transactions and disputes involving companies from Germany and other German-speaking countries. Accordingly, my practice area also includes corporate, contracts, distribution, unfair competition, compliance and renewable energy law.
2. What is one relationship you've made through WLG that has been important to your practice?
As a foreign trainee, I visited both CMS Germany, Cologne and Taylor Wessing, Düsseldorf for three months each.
CMS Germany: Through an arrangement between the KCPs (Dr. Gordian Hasselblatt, Dr. Harald Kahlenberg and Mr. Tanaka), I joined Dr. Gerlind Wisskirchen’s employment law team. During the internship period, I had the honor of giving a presentation on Japanese labor law to the team.
Taylor Wessing: Due to the pandemic, this internship was conducted on a remote basis. Dr. Michael Pils, a labor lawyer well-known at the German-Japanese Lawyers’ Association, kindly gave me a lecture on the latest developments in German law on a regular basis, which was very informative and exciting. He further arranged an opportunity to visit the Eindhoven office of the Firm, which was also very interesting.
Before I returned to Japan, I had the honor of visiting Ms. Martika Jonk at CMS Netherlands, who is assisting Mr. Tanaka on a case in which Dutch, Croatian and Montenegrin entities are involved. At the lunch she kindly invited me to, I learned a lot about WLG from her, a past WLG President.
I am very thankful for all of those who enriched my internship while I was in Europe, and I was also impressed by the opportunities WLG is able to offer.
3. If someone were to visit your country, what is a must-see/must-do?
Japan has many faces – Hokkaido, the northernmost island, is like Siberia; Kyoto is full of medieval history; Nara and Ise attract with Japanese ancient history; and Okinawa is tropical. However, the “must-do” is visiting City-Yuwa in Tokyo!