The new hires have more than 20 years of experience working in Asia, assisting clients with structuring Japanese and cross-border investments in the Asia-Pacific region.

International law firm Withers has bolstered its Asia practice by hiring two new teams led by six partners specialising in real estate and funds for its Tokyo and Hong Kong offices.

The lawyers in these teams have more than 20 years of experience working in Asia, assisting clients with structuring Japanese and cross-border investments in the Asia-Pacific region, it said in a statement.

Funds team
Funds partners, Koji Yamamoto and Omori Yoshiyuki will be based in Withers' Tokyo office. Yamamoto has experience of advising clients in investment funds and investment management. Yoshiyuki has advised on domestic and foreign financial investment institutions, investment funds, and on Japanese securities regulations for over 10 years. 

Both of them will join Withers from Deloitte along with their team members Rie Nitta (counsel), Wataru Sasaki (associate) and Noriko Narahara and Hirokazu Miyamoto (paralegals).

Junko Shiokawa (partner), who joined Withers from Harneys on 3 September, will work from the firm's Hong Kong and Tokyo offices. She has experience of acting as lead counsel for Japanese and other Asian financial institutions and investment managers in the structuring and formation of various types of funds, including private equity and hedge funds. 

She will be joined by May Ng-Quinn (paralegal) from Harneys. 

Real estate team
The real estate team will be led by partners Gerald Fujii, Naoki Ueyama and Steven Wheeler. Fujii joins the firm from White & Case's Tokyo office.

Ueyama joins the firm from Masuda & Partners and has experience in advising Japanese banks and financial institutions. 

Wheeler joins from Kaynex and will focus on property M&A and financing transactions.