Our 10-lawyer team of U.S.- and Japan-qualified real estate attorneys in Tokyo have advised investment banks, opportunity funds and lenders in real estate transactions in Japan totaling several billions of U.S. dollars in recent years.  We have substantial experience in most aspects of sophisticated real estate transactions in Japan, including structuring tax-efficient ownership structures and operations, trust structures, acquisitions of hard assets and nonperforming loans, nonrecourse loan and bond financings, mezzanine financings, fixed-term leases, sale-leaseback transactions, construction contracts, asset management, nonperforming loan transactions, private equity fund formation, the acquisition of real estate companies, and securitizations and corporate financings, including J-REIT transactions.

Some of the clients we have represented include:

• international investors in the tax-efficient structuring of their Japan property investments, including numerous transactions using the tokutei mokuteki kaisha structure;
  
  
• international investors in acquiring, developing, financing and leasing numerous office, retail, multifamily and hotel properties throughout Japan;
  
  
• various lenders and borrowers in nonrecourse securitizable loans and bond issuances, worth hundreds of billions of yen, secured by properties, trust interests and nonperforming loan portfolios in Japan;
  
  
• Japanese real estate companies in structuring joint ventures with U.S. investors to invest in office buildings in Japan, and representing these joint ventures in financing acquisitions through loans and bond issuances;
  
  
• several asset managers/advisors in forming Japan real estate and distressed asset investment funds totaling more than US$2 billion in equity investment commitments;
  
  
• various parties in mezzanine and subordinate financings related to Japanese real estate assets;
  
  
• various parties in acquiring, selling and financing nonperforming loan portfolios;
  
  
• Japanese parties and entities investing in U.S. and European real estate and real estate secured debt; and
  
  
• Japanese and U.S. investors in structuring fixed-term sale-leaseback transactions for Japanese and U.S. operating companies.

Representative real estate clients of our Tokyo office have included:

• Asia Pacific Land (Japan), Limited;
  
  
• Colony Capital Asia Pacific;
  
  
• Credit Suisse First Boston Securities (Japan) Limited;
  
  
• Deutsche Bank AG/Deutsche Securities Ltd.;
  
  
• Morgan Stanley Japan Limited;
  
  
• Nomura Real Estate Development Co., Ltd.;
  
  
• Shinsei Bank, Limited; and
  
  
• Tokyu Corporation.