Maritime & Logistics

As well as being one of the few Japanese firms that are active in the field of maritime and logistics law, we are also able to provide a full range of legal services to clients operating in these industries through cooperation with our lawyers who are experienced in other areas of law that are relevant to our clients’ business needs, including corporate, insolvency, finance and labour law.

Our strength in the field of maritime and logistics comes from the fact that:

  • Several of our lawyers have studied and gained practical experience in the United Kingdom, so we can provide our services in both Japanese and English
  • Our lawyers have experience as maritime arbitrators, administrators in shipowner liability limitation procedures, maritime counsellors and working on legislative committees that have prepared amendments to Japan’s maritime and transportation laws
  • Our team operates from each of our offices in Kobe, Tokyo, Imabari and Osaka and can respond to incidents anywhere inside or outside of Japan
  • We have lasting relationships with specialists all over the world, including in the United Kingdom, Singapore, China, Panama and the Marshall Islands

Our services

Within the field of maritime and logistics law, we provide services to clients who are involved in the industry as shipowners, shipping companies, marine brokers, shipbuilders, fleet management companies, trading companies, manufacturers, energy companies, P&I insurance clubs, insurance companies, banks, leasing companies, port operation companies, terminal operators, warehousing companies, land and air transport companies, freight forwarders, passenger transport companies, and government agencies, in relation to the following matters:

  • Dry shipping (cargo claims, charterparties, bills of lading, waybills, arrest of vessels, litigation, arbitration and negotiation)
  • Wet shipping (collision, vessel loss, oil spills and other incidents, salvage, wreck removal, limitation of liability actions and accident investigations)
  • Ship financing
  • Sale and purchase of vessels and escrow agency
  • Shipbuilding contracts
  • Maritime industry M&A
  • Registration of shipping companies
  • Insolvency (acting for both debtors and creditors in private rehabilitation, bankruptcy, civil rehabilitation and corporate restructuring)
  • Crew manning issues
  • Marine insurance and contracts
  • Anti-monopoly law
  • Port cargo transport, terminal operations, warehousing
  • Land, sea and international intermodal transportation
  • Passenger transportation

Lawyers

Yoshihiro Uetani

Managing Partner
Kobe and Tokyo offices

Shohei Tezuka

Partner
Kobe,Tokyo and Imabari offices

Makoto Matsumiya

Partner
Kobe and Osaka offices

Kazuya Yamashita

Partner
Tokyo office

Tatsuya Sasaki

Associate
Imabari office

Yusuke Okumura

Associate
Kobe office

Yeechan Jung

Associate
Kobe office

Peter Cassidy

Registered Foreign Attorney
Kobe office

Takanobu Muroi

Associate
Kobe and Osaka office

Eri Moriguchi

Associate
Tokyo office