Attorney at Law (bengoshi) · Gyoseishoshi
Representative, Childsupport Law Office and Childsupport Gyoseishoshi Office
Daini Tokyo Bar Association, Reg. No. 48715
LL.M., Durham University (UK)
Japanese (native) · English (fluent)
Why this page exists
When you look for a lawyer in Japan who works in English, most websites tell you that “English support is available.” They rarely tell you who speaks it, or what that person’s background is.
This page tells you.
Background
| 2006–2008 | State University of New York at Buffalo — B.A., Political Science (Dean’s List) |
| 2008–2009 | Citizen’s Network for Japanese-Filipino Children, Tokyo and Manila |
| 2009–2012 | Keio University Law School — Juris Doctor |
| 2012–2013 | Legal Training and Research Institute of the Supreme Court of Japan |
| 2013 | Admitted as an attorney (bengoshi) — Daini Tokyo Bar Association |
| 2013–2015 | Chuo Sogo Law Office |
| 2015–2020 | Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Tokyo |
| 2018–2019 | Durham University, United Kingdom — LL.M. (on secondment from Freshfields) |
| 2020–2025 | Paidy Inc. — Head of Legal and Compliance |
| 2023– | Founded Childsupport (held concurrently with Paidy until 2025) |
Also registered as a gyoseishoshi. Member of the Family Law Study Group and the Alternative Dispute Resolution Study Group, Daini Tokyo Bar Association.
Listed on the UK government’s Find a professional service abroad service (lawyers, Japan). Listing is not a recommendation or endorsement by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.
Why this matters to your case
Four things in that list are unusual for a Japanese divorce practice, and each of them is the reason a particular kind of question gets a straight answer here.
It started with cross-border children
Before law school, in 2008, I worked in Tokyo and Manila for the Citizen’s Network for Japanese-Filipino Children — an organisation supporting children born to Japanese fathers and Filipino mothers. Much of that work concerned recognition of paternity and support for children whose father lived in a different country from them.
That is the same question this practice answers today, and it is where I began. Cross-border child support is not a niche I moved into.
An LL.M. from an English university
Cross-border divorce turns on which country’s law applies and whether a Japanese order will be recognised abroad. Reading a foreign judgment, or a foreign lawyer’s opinion, is part of the work here rather than something sent out.
Five years at a Magic Circle firm
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is one of the five London firms known collectively as the Magic Circle. The work is conducted in English between parties in different countries, and much of mine was advising clients outside Japan on how Japanese law applied to them.
Explaining a Japanese legal position, in English, to someone who has never encountered Japanese law is a practised skill. It is what I did for five years before I did it for people getting divorced.
Head of Legal at a company through its sale
From 2020 to 2025 I was Head of Legal and Compliance at Paidy Inc., a Tokyo fintech company. I led the legal side of a dual-track preparation — a sale and a stock-exchange listing, run in parallel — and Paidy was acquired by PayPal in 2021 for approximately US$2.7 billion.
That work is not divorce law. What it gave me is a habit: people who are paying for advice want to know what happens next, what it costs, and what the realistic range of outcomes is. Not a survey of the possibilities.
What this means in a consultation
I handle English-language matters myself. That is not a service level — it is a description of who is in the room.
When the question is whether your spouse’s foreign retirement account forms part of the marital property, the answer requires reading the Japanese statute, the treatment of foreign assets, and your account documents. An interpreter can convey that answer. They cannot reach it.
If your matter is better served by someone else — a different office, or counsel in your own country for a question of that country’s law — I will say so.
Writing
Co-author of two books published by Shojihomu — Introduction to Competition Law Global Practice (2015) and Introduction to Global Investigation (2016) — and of articles for Business Homu and for Freshfields, including the firm’s Asia Data Privacy Guide.
The office
Childsupport Law Office handles divorce, child support, and related family matters. The office receives over 200 divorce consultations a year. Its lawyers and gyoseishoshi are predominantly women.
The office is registered both as a law office and as a gyoseishoshi office. In Japanese practice these are separate professions with separate scopes: preparing the documents that record a divorce, and representing you when it becomes contested. Holding both means your matter does not change hands at the point it becomes difficult.
