In brief A bill partially amending the Act Against Delay in Payment of Subcontract Proceeds, etc. to Subcontractors (“Subcontract Act”) and the Act on the Promotion of Subcontracting Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (collectively, Amendment to the Subcontract Act, etc.) was passed and enacted in a plenary session of the Japanese House of Councillors on 16 May 2025. The Subcontract Act was enacted to ensure fairness in subcontracting transactions and protect the interests of subcontractors. This…
Author
Akira Inoue
BrowsingDr. Inoue is a partner at Baker McKenzie's Tokyo office, and has been handling cross-border antitrust cases for more than 20 years. He is highly respected for his knowledge of antitrust and competition law, giving presentations at numerous events and having authored 10 books and more than 122 articles on the subject. The government frequently seeks his opinions on competition policy and government reports often cite his articles. Dr. Inoue has been serving Japanese companies as lead defense counsel since becoming involved in the international vitamin cartel case. Most recently, he successfully secured compliance credit for only the second time in the history of antitrust practice and won a 40% fine reduction. He is further distinguished as the sole member of the steering committee of Baker McKenzie's Global Antitrust & Competition Group from the Asia Pacific region.
Dr. Inoue has been recognized as a “Leading Individual” by Chambers Asia-Pacific (2010-2024), Legal 500 (2019-2024), Who’s Who Legal (2016-2024), Thomson Reuters Stand-out Lawyer (2020-2024), Asia Business Law Journal List of Japan's Top 100 Lawyers (2020 and 2024) and Best Lawyers in Japan (2017-2022). He is recognized at the lawyer ranking published by Nikkei News Paper (2018, 2022 and 2023).
Dr. Inoue’s focus is cross-border antitrust cases, especially international cartel cases. Starting with the vitamin cartel, he has represented clients in international cartel cases in a variety of industries, including the elevator, sorbic acid, DRAM, auto parts (shock absorbers, steering devices, seat belts, power steering, smart key entry systems, body seals, and halogen lamps), hydraulic device and HDD industries.