Researches & Documentation

We conduct research and report to our clients on the legal issues they need to consider in order to resolve the problems they are facing.

We also investigate whether there are any legal issues that need to be considered with respect to our clients' business plans, report our findings, and, if necessary, make recommendations on how our clients should revise their plans or take actions.

We draft contracts, agreements, memoranda of understanding, and other documents to serve as evidence should our clients become involved in future disputes.

We also analyze and examine the contents of the legal documents presented by our clients' counterparties to see if there are any terms and conditions that are unfavorable to our clients and, if necessary, propose changes to the terms and conditions that our clients should request from the counterparties.

How to conduct research

We conduct research and report to our clients by the following methods, among others:

• Obtaining Official Records:

  We conduct research on basic family information by obtaining certified copies of family registers for Japanese nationals, residence certificates to confirm the residences and family structures, using the special authority granted to lawyers.

  We also obtain public records on our clients' behalf, such as certified copies of real estate registers that will be necessary to confirm the real estate owners in inheritance cases, certified copies of commercial registrations of any corporations to confirm their existence, addresses of main offices, etc.

• Request to send a letter of inquiry in the name of the President of the Bar Association:

  This is a common way among Japanese lawyers to conduct investigation in relation to any disputes pursuant to article 23-2 of Attorneys Act.

  In order to make this request to a Bar Association, an attorney retained by a client needs to make a request to the bar association to which the attorney belongs by filing documents explaining the needs to make inquiries in order to get in touch with, or commence legal proceedings against, the counter party or parties of the client.

  This research method costs a clent filing fee for the Bar Association and the request can be rejected by the Bar Association if the request lacks a valid reason. Also, even if the Bar Association send the letter of inquiry to the relevant party, the addressee sometimes refuses to answer the inquiries due to its contractual confidentiality obligations to its customers.