Yoshiko Oshima is a lawyer based in Tokyo, Japan, who studied at Keio University, trained at the Legal Training and Research Institute of the Supreme Court of Japan, and was admitted to the Japanese bar in 1988. Her career includes a partnership at Nishimura & Sanada, in-house work for an oil company, and international legal practice in New York.
Education
Oshima received a Bachelor of Laws from Keio University in 1980. Keio was founded in 1858 by Yukichi Fukuzawa as a school of Western studies in Edo and was authorized as a university in 1920. Its first university faculties, including law, were established in 1890, so its law faculty belongs to the institution's early university period.
After passing the bar examination, prospective lawyers in Japan completed full-time training at the Legal Training and Research Institute of the Supreme Court of Japan, which trained new attorneys, prosecutors, and judges. The institute was established in May 1947 as a training facility affiliated with the Supreme Court and is located in Wako, Saitama. Her admission to the Japanese bar in 1988 is dated to the close of this training stage.
Oshima also earned a Master of Laws from the University of Washington in Seattle, a public university in the United States.
Career
Oshima was admitted to the Japanese bar in 1988, and her record gives 1988 as the start of her partnership at Nishimura & Sanada. For context, the Tokyo firm now called Nishimura & Asahi was founded in 1966 as Nishimura & Partners and adopted its current name after acquiring the international division of Asahi Law Offices in 2007.
From 1989 to 1991 she worked as an in-house lawyer for Exxon Corporation, an American oil company that merged with Mobil in 1999 to form ExxonMobil. Her career then included a brief period in 1995 as an international practicing lawyer at Coudert Brothers, a law firm with origins in New York.
