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Cross-border M&A & Market Entry
Structuring, due diligence, and closing support for inbound and outbound transactions. From Japan-market entry playbooks to APAC roll-ups, we sit on your side of the deal.
Learn more →Tokyo · Singapore · Sydney
A family practice,
built for a borderless world.
Three generations of counsel. Fluent across three jurisdictions. Pearce Inagaki advises enterprises, founders, and families on cross-border legal and tax matters where local nuance meets international scale.
Tokyo · 東京Est. 2026
Why Pearce Inagaki
Depth where it matters. Reach where it counts.
Most firms give you one of the two. We were built to give you both — rooted in decades of Japanese practice, extended by international business experience across the Asia-Pacific.
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Generational depth.
Nearly four decades of Japanese legal practice — corporate, real estate, inheritance — carried forward as the foundation of the firm. When you speak with us, you speak with continuity.
— 02
Cross-border fluency.
We work in English and Japanese, across Tokyo, Singapore, and Sydney. Contracts, tax structures, and negotiations translate cleanly on both sides of the table.
— 03
Enterprise-grade advisory.
Years of enterprise experience advising APAC-region corporate clients — from global software leaders to fast-scaling regional players. We understand how enterprise legal decisions get made.
Practice areas
Counsel across the full commercial arc.
From forming a Japanese subsidiary to structuring a cross-border acquisition — we handle the matters that span jurisdictions, currencies, and cultures.
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Corporate & Commercial Law
Entity formation, governance, shareholder agreements, and day-to-day commercial counsel for companies operating across multiple jurisdictions.
Learn more →03 / 06
International Tax Advisory
Treaty planning, transfer pricing, permanent-establishment risk, and personal tax residency for internationally mobile founders and executives.
Learn more →04 / 06
Real Estate & Inheritance (Japan)
Property acquisition, title registration, inheritance planning, and generational transfer — the traditional bedrock of Japanese practice, handled with modern rigor.
Learn more →05 / 06
Enterprise Client Advisory (APAC)
Regional legal-operations partnership for global software and services companies — vendor contracting, compliance frameworks, and localization for the APAC market.
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Contract Drafting & Negotiation
Bilingual drafting and negotiation of commercial agreements — SaaS, distribution, employment, JV — with clean handoffs between English and Japanese counterparts.
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The library · Minato-ku, Tokyo
Our story
A quiet inheritance, a wider horizon.
Pearce Inagaki was founded on a simple observation: the questions our clients bring us no longer stop at a single border. A Tokyo family disposing of overseas property. A Singapore founder incorporating in Japan. A global enterprise reconciling its APAC operations with its global tax posture. These are the matters we were built for.
Our practice carries forward nearly forty years of Japanese legal tradition — corporate, real estate, and inheritance — trained in the disciplined style of the country's leading firms. Alongside that foundation, years of enterprise experience across the APAC corporate technology sector bring a modern, commercial instinct to every engagement.
"We opened the firm not to expand, but to focus — on the matters where careful Japanese practice and international commercial sense have to meet in the same room."— The founding partners
Lead Partner ✎ add name
Founding Partner · Head of Practice
Carries forward nearly four decades of family legal practice in Japan — corporate, real estate, and inheritance matters — for domestic and international clients. Working languages: Japanese, English.
JFBA · Minato-ku practice · Est. 1980s
Managing Partner ✎ add name
Partner · APAC Enterprise Advisory
Years of enterprise experience across the APAC corporate technology sector — leading legal-adjacent, commercial, and go-to-market functions for global software companies operating in the region.
Singapore & Sydney · Enterprise APAC
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Selected matters
Where careful counsel makes the difference.
Anonymized illustrations of the work we do. Every matter listed below reflects the shape of an engagement we have handled — details adjusted for client confidentiality.
Australian SaaS acquiring a Japanese distributor.
Structured a share-purchase acquisition, coordinated bilingual due diligence, and negotiated post-closing integration terms across three jurisdictions.
¥1.8B
Enterprise value
Global software leader restructuring its APAC contracts.
Regional master-agreement redesign for a listed software company — harmonizing SaaS terms across nine APAC jurisdictions while preserving local enforceability.
9 markets
Contract harmonization
Multi-generational transfer of a Tokyo property portfolio.
Structured inheritance and gift-tax planning for a family with overseas beneficiaries — including title registration, valuation coordination, and treaty review.
3 generations
Continuity secured
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Pearce Inagaki gave us something rare — a legal partner who understood both sides of the table without needing anything translated. The clarity we got on our Japan expansion changed how we approached the whole region.
General Counsel · Global SaaS Company (✎ add real attribution)
Frequently asked
Questions we hear often.
Don't see your question here? Reach out directly — most engagements begin with a scoped, confidential conversation.
Yes. A significant share of our engagements involve at least one non-Japanese party. We routinely coordinate across Singapore, Australia, and the wider APAC region in both English and Japanese.
We advise on both directly and, where needed, work alongside a curated network of tax advisory partners across our three regions. Most cross-border matters benefit from that combined view.
We work with three broad segments: global enterprises needing an APAC-region counsel, founder-led companies expanding into or out of Japan, and Japanese families with international interests. The unifying thread is complexity that crosses a border.
With a scoped, confidential first conversation — typically 30–45 minutes — to understand the matter, identify the right team, and outline a fee approach. There is no obligation to proceed.
We use fixed-fee arrangements for well-defined matters and transparent hourly rates for open-ended advisory work. For enterprise clients, we can structure retainers with agreed monthly caps.
English and Japanese are our working languages, at native and native-professional levels respectively. We also engage translators for other languages when a matter requires it.
Begin a conversation
Every matter begins with a careful listen.
Share a brief description of what you're working through. We will respond within one business day with next steps — typically a scoped first conversation.
Tokyo 東京 · HQ
Singapore SG · APAC
Sydney AU · Oceania