The process of the contract negotiation should be varied for cross border business. You might start drafting an English version first. Or your business partner might start Japanese version and you will translate it later.
Meantime, if you have a business project in Japan, you have experiences to execute a contract both in English and Japanese. It’s necessary to understand the content of those contract well. And those contracts state Japanese regulations generally. In that case, Japanese business partners prefer to make Japanese versions of those contracts for their reference.
Let me use an example for this topic. If you have American hotel brand, you’re thinking to launch your hotel brand property in Japan. You might think that Japanese tourism is booming now and want to start your projects at your earliest convenience.
In this case, you have already prepared boiler plates for most of the transaction for your business in English for your American business. You might have a specification of brand standard already and a draft of management contract. It’s true that you can’t change those that much since it’s necessary to retain the brand standard and your bargaining position for corporate policy.
Then, you will send those filled in the blanks with the project information to the Japanese business partners.
Meantime, the Japanese business partners might ask you to draft Japanese version of the contracts. This happens frequently since those contracts require to clarify Japanese regulations which should be specified in Japanese. Or it’s necessary that Japanese business partners properly understand the content of those contracts.
However, legal document translation doesn’t work sometimes just by a work by the translation company since it requires legal expertise. Your country’s laws are different from Japanese laws since it’s different country. Even though it’s possible to try to translate those into Japanese, you might be worried about the situation where those products don’t have the same content as it in English. It’s tough.
You’ve already hired lawyers in your home country, and they have reviewed those boiler plates already. Meantime, they can’t review from Japanese law viewpoint since they’re not qualified as a lawyer in Japan. Sometimes, you might have Japanese lawyers qualified just in US. While most of them don’t have legal qualifications in Japan. Then, you need to seek legal professional qualified in both of US and Japan.
On top of that, if the Japanese business partners ask you to revise the boiler plates of management contracts, you have to communicate with various professionals to protect your bargaining position. Sometimes, you have to ask legal advice to your home country’s lawyers, or you have to hire Japanese lawyer to have better understanding of it. This takes time since you face time difference.
In this case, it’s efficient to hire a Japanese lawyer with American lawyer qualification. Then, you don’t have to ask your issues to many legal professionals. You can do it with one expertise.
Hattori Law has a Japanese lawyer qualified in NY, US. He has experience in hotel development industry. He is familiar with management contract for hotels and forth. If you negotiate with Japanese business partners, you have to check their business thoughts. You will get the right insights if you hire Japanese lawyer qualified in both of Japan and US.
We’re here to support your business in Japan. Please kindly feel free to contact us.
Hattori Law
We have expertise to support foreign investors in Japan. As you may know, Japan is
literally “Japanese language society”, meaning, almost everything should be done in Japanese. This is obvious but you might feel it so much when you start your business here in Japan.
Or you might need business consultant for your Japan business since it’s a little bit different from American or European one.
Hattori Law has a bilingual lawyer qualified in Japan and New York, USA. We have experience to support various companies including construction company, fund, startup, entertainment company, and so forth. Our lawyer has business and public sector experience. We could support you with business, legal, and public perspective.
We do our best to be the right law firm for you.
Contact Us: https://www.hrtlawfirm.com/contact-us/
Level 8, Tri-Seven Roppongi, 7-7-7, Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032, Japan
Tel: +81-3-6629-3520
Also Read:
Negotiating Japanese Contracts in English: Navigating Legal Agreements in a Global Context
Find the Best Law firm in Japan to deals with Foreign leagal Issues.
FAQs
International lawyer is defined as a lawyer dealing with cross border case in Japan. Some of them have been admitted as an attorney at law not only in Japan but also in the United States, and so forth.
International law firm is defined as a law firm primarily dealing with cross border case in Japan.
Quick response and its preciseness should be the key for the best international law firm. It’s necessary to collect and select appropriate information for legal business judgment from limited resources in international business world. If the law firm responds quickly and correctly, the law firm should be the best international law firm for you.
It doesn’t matter whether the law firm has expertise in specific practice areas. Rather than that, various ranking firms weigh rankings in each practice areas.
The international law firm provides service to organize your business scheme, draft contracts, or negotiate with business counterparts for cross border deals. Sometimes, the firm cooperate with local law firms for providing appropriate legal service.
If you expand your business from foreign countries to Japan, you may have a plenty of trouble because of the differences of regulations, language, and so forth. If you have international law firm in Japan for your business, the firm will provide you sufficient explanation for business progress since they have plural viewpoint, meaning, Japanese viewpoint and foreign viewpoints.
It really depends while if the law firm has an international lawyer with law degree and legal qualification in US with experiences to deal with cross border business, the law firm should have sufficient experience to deal with international legal matters.
It will speak in Japanese and English. In Japan, almost everything should be done in Japanese. If you don’t feel any stress speaking in English with your lawyer, the lawyer should be a nicer choice for you.
It has easy access to legal updates regarding cross border legal developments via international lawyer’s organization, and so forth.
What is the approach of the best international law firm in Japan when it comes to communication and client service?
Hourly rate fee arrangement is a typical way at Hattori Law.