Specifically, Chihiro serves as a liaison between the firm’s attorneys and Japanese companies and clients particularly in the course of corporate, labor and employment and litigation dealings. Her work spans a range of industries including energy, manufacturing, oil and gas, and pharmaceutical.

Chihiro assists companies in setting up subsidiaries in the United States, as well as with antitrust, immigration, international trade, and litigation related issues. She reviews contracts, ascertains the best courses of action with regard to mergers and acquisitions, and helps to identify the best or most appropriate types of visas that would be needed in particular circumstances.

In the course of her career, Chihiro has advised on international jurisdiction issues; assisted with a product defect litigation of a high-profile foreign company, a manufacturer of computer component parts; assisted a U.S. company in its purchase of a business unit from a Japanese company; and assisted a high-profile foreign company in the energy sector in its application to the Fair Trade Commission of Japan for consent to undertake a merger with another foreign company.

Following in her father’s footsteps, as he was also an attorney, Chihiro leverages her legal, lingual and cross-cultural skills, with her natural aptitude for building and maintaining relationships with colleagues and clients alike.

Prior to joining Barnes & Thornburg, Chihiro spent four years with Anderson Mori, a Japanese law firm based in Tokyo, for nearly four years. There, she gained experience working on mergers, purchases, intellectual property, and litigation matters.