Westlaw Japan Press Release

April 2022

[Westlaw Japan K.K.]
Joint Seminar with
Miura & Partners and Thomson Reuters

“The Grand Design of ESG Required of Companies Today—Key Points for Actions, Disclosure, and Displaying Information”

Lecturers from Miura & Partners　
[Moderator/Panelist]
Naomi Koshi, Partner, Admitted in New York and California
[Panelists]
Kaoru Matsuzawa, Partner, Admitted in New York
Yuhei Sakao, Partner, Admitted in New York
Masaki Sekimoto, Partner, Admitted in New York
Tomotake Matsuda, Partner

Westlaw Japan K.K. (Minato Ward, Tokyo, President and Representative Director: Young Sun Bang) will hold a premium online seminar titled “The Grand Design of ESG Required of Companies Today—Key Points for Actions, Disclosure, and Displaying Information” with Miura & Partners and Thomson Reuters on Wednesday, June 1.

It is not too much to say that ESG (environment, society, and governance) is of paramount importance for corporations today.
Many corporations are showcasing initiatives in response to the rising attention towards ESG from various stakeholders including investors, financial institutions, and consumers. Furthermore, the revision of the Corporate Governance Code and the enforcement of the Plastic Resource Circulation Act show how corporations are required to take ESG actions for both soft law and hard law. Regardless of sector or industry, they cannot stay indifferent to ESG.
Our clients are reaching out to us with questions such as “What should we work on and how?” “How should we disclose the information?” or “To what extent can we promote our actions?”—we understand that once corporations decide to get to grips with ESG, they need to take various perspectives into account that stretch across multiple legal disciplines.
In this seminar titled “The Grand Design of ESG,” we will describe the key points for formulating the grand design to address ESG issues, ranging from basic knowledge and detailed activities (especially activities of executives and staff related to diversity) to disclosure to investors and sharing information with consumers.

Overview
Date and Time	2 pm to 4 pm, Wednesday, June 1, 2022
How to Apply	The seminar will be a LiVECAST webinar. You will be able to join from anywhere with access to the internet, from your home or your office. We will send you the link to join the seminar together with access details after we receive your registration.

＜How to register＞

Please submit the registration form from the link below.
https://coubic.com/seminar-westlawjapan/932796

Fees	10,000 JPY (incl. tax) if you sign up by Wednesday, May 18, 2022 20,000 JPY (incl. tax) if you sign up on or after Thursday, May 19, 2022

Please find details here:
https://www.westlawjapan.com/event/premium/220601.html

Program
2 pm – 2:05 pm	Opening
2:05 pm – 2:15 pm	Characteristics of Miura & Partners and our ESG/SDGs practice (Kaoru Matsuzawa)
2:15 pm – 2:45 pm	Basics of ESG actions for corporations and establishing systems (Yuhei Sakao) Why ESG is important now How companies should handle ESG Details of ESG actions Executive compensation linked to ESG criteria
2:45 pm – 3:05 pm	Evolution of diversity required of executives and employees (Kaoru Matsuzawa and Naomi Koshi) The state of diversity among executives and employees Significance of diversity in the Corporate Governance Code Trends of institutional investors and changes to principles for exercising voting rights Required responses going forward
3:05 pm – 3:25 pm	Disclosure of ESG (Masaki Sekimoto) Importance of ESG when disclosing information and the background Statutory disclosure based on ESG Voluntary disclosure based on ESG
3:25 pm – 3:45 pm	ESG promotion and regulations (Tomotake Matsuda) Points to remember from cases of penalties and disputes of ESG promotion Points to check before promoting ESG How to respond when issues occur with ESG promotion
3:45 pm – 4 pm	Q&A

Miura & Partners

Naomi Koshi, Lawyer admitted in New York and California, Partner
Graduated from Hokkaido University, Graduate School of Law (LL.M.) in 2001. Graduated from Harvard Law School in 2009. Worked at Nishimura & Asahi from 2002 to 2011. Worked at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in　New York from 2009 to 2010. Visiting Fellow at Columbia Business School from 2010 to 2011. Mayor of Otsu City from 2012 to 2020. As the youngest female mayor at the time, reduced to zero the number of children waiting to be admitted to nursery schools and succeeded in increasing the population. Holds lectures and in-house training sessions on the topic of diversity as a Partner of Miura & Partners. Grooming and introducing female executives as the CEO of OnBoardK.K. Outside Director of V-cube, Inc. from 2020 to present. External Director of SoftBank Corp. from 2021 to present.

Kaoru Matsuzawa, Lawyer admitted in New York, Partner
Graduated from Keio University (LL.B.) in 2001. Graduated from Harvard Law School in 2008. Worked at Mori Hamada & Matsumoto from 2002 to 2017. Started practicing independently in the same year, and established Miura & Partners in 2019 with a co-partner. Awarded The Best Lawyers in Japan 2021 (Corporate Governance and Compliance Practice) in 2020. Involved in the reform of public and private sectors including management of an independent committee set up in the Diet and governance reinforcement of an incorporated administrative agency. In 2017, as a member of the Tokyo Future Vision Conference, raised the issue of wrong decision-making by homogeneous groups that lack diversity in Japanese organizations to the Governor of Tokyo. Non-executive director and audit and supervisory committee member, SENSYN ROBOTICS, Inc. and Audit and Supervisory Committee External Director, MedicalNote, Inc. from 2020 to present. Grooming and introducing female executives as the CEO of OnBoard K.K. from 2021.

Yuhei Sakao, Lawyer admitted in New York, Partner
Graduated from the University of Tokyo School of Law (J.D.) in 2011. Graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School (LL.M. with Wharton Business & Law Certificate) in 2018. Worked at Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu from 2012 to 2021. Worked at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP in Washington D.C. from 2018 to 2019. Worked on secondment at the Legal Department of Mitsui & Co., Ltd. from 2020 to 2021. Handles various corporate legal affairs mainly specializing in risk management, misconduct, compliance, and corporate governance. One of the founding members of the Miura & Partners ESG/SDGs Practice Group.

Masaki Sekimoto, Lawyer admitted in New York, Partner
Graduated from the University of Tokyo (LL.B.) in 2007. Graduated from Columbia Law School (LL.M., Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar) in 2014. Worked at Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu from 2008 to 2020 and at Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu NY LLP from 2014 to 2016. Worked on secondment at the Listing Department of Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc., from 2018 to 2020. In-depth knowledge on corporate governance including ESG and disclosure from his experience of being engaged in planning and designing the listing system for the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Author of Read through dialogue Sustainability / ESG Legal (Chuokeizai-sha Holdings, Inc., March 2022).

Tomotake Matsuda, Partner
Graduated from the University of Tokyo (LL.B.) in 2005. Joined Mori Hamada & Matsumoto in 2007. Worked at the Consumer Affairs Agency for three years from 2011 and engaged in formulating the bills for the Act on Special Measures for Court Proceedings for Consumers and the Amended Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations (implementation of the surcharge system). As a specialist of consumer matters and litigations/disputes, he has extensive knowledge of dispute and litigation topics including corporate legal affairs related to consumers (Consumer Contract Act, Act on Specified Commercial Transactions, Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations, Act on Securing Quality, Efficacy and Safety of Products Including Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices, Product Liability Act, etc.) and responding to investigations by the Consumer Affairs Agency and Qualified Consumer Organizations. One of the founding members of the Miura & Partners ESG/SDGs Practice Group.

About Westlaw Japan K.K.
Westlaw Japan K.K. is a joint venture equally owned by Thomson Reuters and Shinnippon-Hoki Publishing Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Nagoya). The company was established on March 31, 2006, in order to meet the needs of the times by providing comprehensive online legal information services in Japan. For more information, please go to https://www.westlawjapan.com/.

About Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters is a provider of news and information for corporations and professional markets. It offers industry expertise, technology, and information that are necessary for customers to come up with reliable solutions. The company has a history of more than 100 years and operates in over 100 countries around the globe. Thomson Reuters’s shares are listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges. For more information, please go to www.thomsonreuters.com.

About Shinnippon-Hoki Publishing Co., Ltd.
Shinnippon-Hoki Publishing Co., Ltd. has more than 70 years of history and it is one of the leading publishers in Japan within the fields of legislation, tax, and accounting. The company provides information and solution services to experts (such as lawyers, judicial scriveners, certified public accountants, tax accountants, architects, social insurance labor consultants, and public notaries), central governments, local governments, and corporate practitioners by offering them over 600 titles of loose-leaf law books, other publications, and online services. For more information, please go tohttps://www.sn-hoki.co.jp/.