Eiji Yamahara (Mr) – advising clients on legal issues from domestic and international perspectives.
Since being admitted to practice law in Japan in 1992, he has worked in domestic and international law firms, as well as a major US investment bank and a leading Japanese trading and investment firm (Sogo-Shosha) as in-house counsel. Registered with Tokyo Bar Association (former Chairman of its International Committee). Registered as Maritime Counsel with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. Member of the Japan Association of Arbitrators (JAA: htttps://en.arbitrators.jp). In 2023, he established his own law firm named Oh-Unabara Kokusai Horitsu Jimusho, known in English as “Studio Legale EYTOKIO“, near Mitsukoshi Department Store in Nihonbashi, Tokyo (a 10 minute-walk from Tokyo Station).
Lecturer, Faculty of Law at Waseda University (2025- ). He holds LLM degrees from the University of London (1997) and the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law (2008). Internships at Clifford Chance in London and Carlsmith Ball in Honolulu.
In the area of project work, he has extensive experience in project work, including traditional coal-fired power generation. He advised on investment agreements, shareholders’ agreements, EPC(I) and O&M agreements, among others, for domestic and foreign solar power generation, onshore and offshore wind power generation, and offshore deepwater energy development projects. In 2025, he managed documentation and submitted a closing legal opinion for a leading Japanese company’s investment in two LNG carrier vessels linked to an LNG project.
In maritime and shipping law, he manages documentation, litigation and arbitration matters relating to charterparties, ship sales, shipbuilding, technology licensing agreements, legal issues involving commercial documents like letters of credit and bills of lading, maritime insolvency cases and ship arrest cases. He represented claimants in petitions to TOMAC (Tokyo Maritime Arbitration Commission), the oldest arbitration institution of Japan (Rule and Model Clause: https://www.jseinc.org/en/tomac/index.html). For lawyers and in-house training, he conducted a session on INCOTERMS®2020.
In finance, he has advised on a wide range of financing matters including syndicated loans, asset finance, derivatives, aircraft and ship finance. Recent clients include a leading regional banking group which he regularly advises on a variety of matters. He has also provided a wide range of corporate services to various companies. For example, he supervised the company’s “flash reports” and “firm reports” filed to PPC (Personal Information Protection Commission Japan; https://www.ppc.go.jp/en/index.html) under Japan’s revised Personal Information Protection Act.
He assists foreign investors with their investments in Japan by providing legal memoranda and due diligence reports on Japanese law. For example, he recently submitted a legal memorandum to a European contractor, based on discussions with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, on the interpretation of Article 3 of the Ship Law of Japan (equivalent to the US Jones Act), which poses challenges related to cabotage when using foreign-flagged vessels for the construction of offshore wind turbines off Akita Prefecture. To help a Chinese company pass a listing examination by a Chinese securities house, he conducted due diligence on the Japanese subsidiary, submitted a DD report to the underwriter.
Recently, he has advised Japanese company directors and employees on legal challenges stemming from the US-China trade conflict, working with US and Chinese lawyers. He has also provided guidance on creating internal regulations for AI tools like ChatGPT. He advised on the amendments to the Japanese Arbitration Law, which came into force on 1 April 2024, enabling parties to seek a decision from a Japanese court to order enforcement of an interim temporary preservative/restraining order issued by the arbitral tribunal.
Occasionally, he collaborates with other experts. For example, he recently assisted lawyers from Miyake Imai Ikeda Law Office, one of Japan’s leading law firms known for its expertise in insolvency. He helped them deal with assets related to the United Ocean Group insolvency case. He also works with local counsel in other countries, as required, for clients with factories in Thailand, for example, and operations in China, India and Singapore.
(23 November 2025)