Shinichi Takahashi is a Japanese lawyer based in Tokyo, where he is a partner at Nishimura & Asahi, one of Japan's largest law firms. He practises insurance, banking, capital markets and structured finance law, is admitted to practise in Japan and New York, and has written widely on Japanese insurance and reinsurance regulation.
Background
Takahashi's formal legal education took place in Japan, beginning at the University of Tokyo, the country's leading imperial university and a principal center of legal training. His later studies in the United States connected a Japanese legal education with American legal practice, a combination that became part of his professional profile.
After completing his university studies, he entered the Japanese legal profession through the national system of judicial training, which prepared candidates for admission to practise. His career has since been shaped by Japan's large corporate and financial sector, particularly insurance, where his work has centered.
Education
Takahashi received a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Tokyo in 1982. Founded in 1877 from earlier government schools, the university was Japan's first imperial university and has long been regarded as a leading center of legal education in the country.
He then trained at the Legal Training and Research Institute of the Supreme Court of Japan, completing the program in 1984, the year he was admitted to practise in Japan. The institute, established in 1947 after the reform of Japan's judicial system, provides practical training to candidates who seek admission to the legal profession.
He later earned a Master of Laws from Columbia Law School in 1990. Columbia Law School, founded in 1858 in New York City, is one of the oldest law schools in the United States and offers graduate programs for lawyers trained in other legal systems.
Career
After completing his Master of Laws, Takahashi spent one year on secondment with the New York office of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, from 1990 to 1991. Founded in New York in 1884, the firm is a major American corporate law practice, and secondments of this kind gave foreign-trained lawyers direct experience of American transactional work. He was admitted to the New York bar in 1991, in addition to his Japanese admission in 1984.
In the late 1990s and 2000s, Takahashi held board-level positions connected with financial institutions. He served as an outside corporate auditor of Lloyd's Japan Inc. from 1997 to 2009, a role that involved independent oversight of a company's management under Japanese corporate law. From 2001 to 2007 he was liquidator of Daihyaku Mutual Life Insurance Company, an insurer whose winding-up formed part of the restructuring of Japan's life insurance sector after 2000. Liquidators are appointed to manage the affairs and assets of an insolvent company until its dissolution.
He also acted as counsel to the insurance administrators of Toho Life Mutual Insurance Company and Daihyaku Life Insurance Company, and as deputy trustee for Taisei Fire & Marine Insurance Company during its corporate reorganization. Insurance administrators and trustees take charge of insurers in financial difficulty, so these engagements reflected his specialization in insurance regulation and insolvency.
From 2017 to 2021 he served as an outside corporate auditor of Mizuho Leasing Company, Limited, formerly IBJ Leasing Company, Limited, a leasing business associated with the Mizuho financial group.
Takahashi is a partner at Nishimura & Asahi, the firm that originated as Nishimura Law Office, established in Tokyo in December 1966 by Toshiro Nishimura. The firm was known as Nishimura & Partners until it integrated with the international division of Asahi Law Offices in July 2007. Its general practice has covered corporate, commercial, securities, banking, taxation, administrative, antitrust, intellectual property, entertainment, real estate and litigation matters. Takahashi's own practice areas include insurance, banking, capital markets and structured finance. In the 2019 Chambers Asia-Pacific rankings he was recognized as a Leading Individual in insurance.
