Yushi Hegawa is a partner at Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu. As a specialist in tax law, Mr. Hegawa advises as tax counsel on the tax law aspects of various corporate, finance and commercial transactions handled by the firm, and represents taxpayers in a number of tax audit and controversy cases. He has particular expertise in tax law matters relating to international transactions or involving unprecedented legal issues, and is committed to providing tax law advice of quality equivalent to that of leading North American and European tax lawyers.

Among his representative matters are, (i) in relation to tax controversy and litigation matters, a landmark Supreme Court decision in favor of the taxpayer (Supreme Court decision dated March 11, 2021), in which a corporate tax assessment was reversed on the ground that the relevant provision of the corporation tax regulations underlying the assessment was null and void as contravening the corporation tax statute, and, (ii) in relation to transactional matters, securing an advance written ruling from the tax authority which eliminates a permanent establishment risk where a foreign IT company registered its representative in Japan under Japanese corporate law (2023).

Mr. Hegawa is highly regarded by many prestigious Japanese and foreign publications. He is ranked Number 1 by Nikkei’s Best Performing Lawyers Survey in Taxation two times in a row in 2024 and 2021, by both client and peer vote. He is also consistently ranked at Band 1 and its equivalent in the area of Japanese taxation by Chambers Asia-Pacific, Legal 500, Best Lawyers and Who’s Who Legal.

In addition to his private practice, Mr. Hegawa taught tax law at The University of Tokyo School of Law as an Adjunct Professor of Law from 2022 through 2025, and at Sophia Law School as an Adjunct Professor of Law or Adjunct Associate Professor of Law from 2007 through 2017. He served as a member of the Supervisory Board of the International Fiscal Association (IFA) Global (from 2018 through 2024), and serves as a Chair of the Management Committee of IFA Japan Branch.

Mr. Hegawa received an LL.B. from the University of Tokyo in 1997 and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School in 2004. From 2004 to 2005, Mr. Hegawa engaged in U.S. federal income tax law practice at Alston & Bird LLP (Washington, D.C.). Mr. Hegawa is admitted to the bar of Japan (1999). He became a partner in 2007.