Following China's entry into the WTO in 2001, the need for reliable legal advice on Chinese law has exploded as a result of the rapid changes to the same in conjunction with China's efforts to open its market. It is believed that due to the long-term stable growth anticipated for the Chinese economy, China will become increasingly vital to Japanese businesses as both a manufacturing center and as a market for Japanese products. Conversely, as Chinese businesses continue to grow, it can be expected that their fervor for expansion abroad will reach new heights. Accordingly, increased activity by Chinese companies in the form of capital market funds procurements and acquisitions of Japanese businesses can also be expected.

Until recently, the lawyers of Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu (NO&T) have handled China-related projects on an individual lawyer basis. However, in order to enable ourselves to fully meet our clients' growing China-related requirements, our firm has made the decision to gather and focus the institutional knowledge and experience of our firm's members and organize a group of lawyers specialized in and charged with responsibility for our firm's China-related projects. The birth of NO&T's China practice group (“CPG”) in 2005, comprised of lawyers specializing in China-related legal work, is the result of our efforts.

By affiliating ourselves with top-tier law firms in China, our firm is perfectly positioned to provide prompt and accurate legal advice of the very highest standards in order to meet our client's China-related legal requirements. By taking full advantage of the knowledge and experience accumulated by our firm's members over a wide range of legal practice areas, NO&T is structured to effectively assist Japanese companies tackle even the newest of transactional structures in China, or Chinese companies make their important first step into the Japanese market.