Japanese law firm Atsumi & Sakai has hired Harukuni Ito (L), Mitsuru Misawa and Kazuki Ishihara as partners in its Tokyo office. The new partners span emerging practice areas such as data protection, risk advisory, and environmental, social and governance (ESG).

Ito, who joins from U.S. law firm Jones Day, is an IP practitioner with a focus on the pharmaceutical and medical industries. He is also experienced in commercial disputes and data security.

Misawa was most recently in an in-house role at green energy supplier Enfinity Global. Having started his career at Nishimura & Asahi in 2005, Misawa worked at TMI Associates between 2013 and 2019, mainly in the firm’s Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore offices. He is a corporate lawyer with experience in project finance, cross-border M&A and commercial disputes, among other things.

Ishihara is an IT and startup practitioner, experienced mainly in fintech, startup support and data security, covering not only Japan but also mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. He worked for Yahoo! Japan as an in-house counsel between 2013 and 2015.

With these additions, A&S has now 97 partners globally.