Tsutomu Yamatoya

Practice
Tsutomu advises domestic and international clients on a variety of legal matters. Among others, disputes resolutions (tax, IP), cross-border transactions and consumer protection law are his strengths.
He has a distinctive experience at a government-affiliated company where he was involved in financing, introducing corporate governance and dealing with electricity deregulation. In the United States, he provided advice mainly to Japanese automotive companies on establishing subsidiaries and employment- and immigration-related issues.

He is focusing on:

• Tax controversies (tax audit, tax appeal and litigation)
  Recent successful cases include: tax appeal on entertainment expenses (2025); legal opinion regarding CFC regime (2025); rebuttal letter regarding taxation on donations (2024); legal opinion regarding the CFC regime (2024); tax audit on R&D expenses (2023); legal opinion about entertainment expenses (2023); legal opinion about tax rejection on corporate reorganization (2023); legal opinion about favorable issuance of stocks (2023); tax litigation regarding the Japan CFC regime (2023)
• IP disputes and other civil disputes
• Draft, review and negotiation of a variety of contracts including joint development agreements, outsourcing agreements and license agreements
• Draft and review of policies such as privacy policies and terms of use (B to B and B to C)
• M&A and global restructuring of entities
• Real estate transactions
• Securities regulations and other regulatory issues
• Platform business, cryptocurrencies and NFTs

Professional Experience
2012-2019 Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu
2015-2017 Seconded to a government-affiliated company
2018-2019 Internships at US law firms (MI and NY) and Japanese securities company (NY)
2019-Present DT Legal Japan

Professional Qualification
Dai-ichi Tokyo Bar Association (2012)
New York State Bar (2019)
Small and Medium Enterprise Management Consultant (2023)

Education
Waseda University (LL.B., 2008, early graduation in three years)
Waseda Law School (J.D., 2011)
University of Pennsylvania Law School (LL.M., 2018, Editor of Asian Law Review)

Languages
Japanese and English

Publications
- International Franchise Handbook 2021
- “Head-ups for foreign business operators about the recent Amendment to the Protection of Personal Information of Japan” (December 2020, Lexology)
- “The Guidebook for Introduction of Electronic Contracts (Domestic Contracts Edition)” (August 2020, Shoji-Houmu)
- “A case which the extraterritorial reach of SEC’s enforcement action was allowed-- SEC v. Scoville, No. 17-4049, 2019 WL 302867 (10th Cir. Jan 24, 2019).” (International Business Law Executive Summary)
- “The modified opinion of Martoma case - United States v. Martoma, 869 F.3d 64 (2d Cir. 2017).” (Kokusai-Shouji-Houmu Vol, 47 No. 2)
- “A recent case regarding the U.S. insider trading law--United States v. Martoma, 869 F.3d 58 (2d Cir. 2017)” (Kokusai-Shouji-Houmu Vol, 46 No. 11)
- “A recent case regarding the U.S. insider trading law--United States v. Martoma, 869 F.3d 58 (2d Cir. 2017)” (International Business Law Executive Summary)