Tokyo · In-house counsel
Companies hire general counsel recruiters Tokyo when the chair has to be a bengoshi, a registered foreign lawyer, or a counsel who is neither, and the person who can do it is not answering a posting.
Companies hire in house legal recruiters Tokyo for a bengoshi or gaiben seat a posting will not fill. The Japan Federation of Bar Associations counted 24,362 attorneys on Tokyo's three bars on 1 October 2026. The Japan In-house Lawyers Association counted 3,756 in-house bengoshi on 30 June 2026, 3,130 on those bars. Sartori & Partners has completed 400+ placements since 2017 (230+ in-house), including 52 general counsel searches: a 24-day shortlist and an 11-week median. The Hong Kong in-house line covering Tokyo closed 17 searches in three years. A NASDAQ-listed medtech in Boston hired its successor general counsel in week 11.
01 — The brief answer
A chief executive in Tokyo writes one description and means three different people. A bengoshi can sign Japanese law, file with a ministry, and stand in a Japanese court. A gaiben, a registered foreign lawyer, can practice the law of the place where the original qualification was earned, after Ministry of Justice approval and a Japan Federation of Bar Associations registration. A counsel who is neither can run contracts, compliance projects and the board pack, and cannot do either of those two things as a profession. The posting that asks for all three in one sentence is the posting that stays open.
That split is what in-house counsel recruiting is retained to settle before any name is discussed. The firm was founded in early 2017 by Lorenzo Sartori. The research programme maps 1,480,000+ lawyer profiles and has run a quarterly survey since 2019. The row below is the corporate book from the case studies: the clock a Tokyo general counsel file is run against, across the firm rather than inside one city.
In-house placements · since 2017
230+
Of which GC / CLO
52
GC shortlist
24days
GC median to offer
11weeks
Sartori & Partners corporate track record, 2017–2026, as published on the case studies. Not a Tokyo-only count. GC range is 8 to 16 weeks. Offer acceptance on corporate mandates is 96%.
02 — Local employers and sectors
On 1 October 2026 the Japan Federation of Bar Associations membership table counted 48,037 bengoshi nationally, of whom 10,088 were women (21.0 percent), and 583 gaiben. The three Tokyo bars were 9,665 bengoshi and 115 gaiben at the Tokyo Bar Association, 7,645 and 169 at the Dai-ichi Tokyo Bar Association, and 7,052 and 250 at the Daini Tokyo Bar Association: 24,362 bengoshi and 534 of the 583 gaiben. Women were 22.4 percent, 23.5 percent and 23.8 percent of those three bars. The JFBA English profile carries the same 1 October 2026 national stock.
In-house stock is a different date. The Japan In-house Lawyers Association, surveying in July 2026, counted 3,756 in-house bengoshi on 30 June 2026 out of 48,106 bengoshi (7.8 percent, gaiben excluded). Of those, 3,130 sit on the three Tokyo bars: 1,197 at the Tokyo bar (12.4 percent of that bar's 9,687), 989 at Dai-ichi (12.9 percent of 7,644) and 944 at Daini (13.3 percent of 7,078). The Kanto federation total is 3,207, so 77 sit on another Kanto bar. Those June denominators are not the 1 October membership counts.
| Bar | Bengoshi, 1 Oct 2026 | Gaiben, 1 Oct 2026 | In-house bengoshi, 30 Jun 2026 | Share of that bar's 30 Jun roll |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tokyo Bar Association | 9,665 | 115 | 1,197 | 12.4% of 9,687 |
| Dai-ichi Tokyo Bar Association | 7,645 | 169 | 989 | 12.9% of 7,644 |
| Daini Tokyo Bar Association | 7,052 | 250 | 944 | 13.3% of 7,078 |
| Three Tokyo bars | 24,362 | 534 | 3,130 | JILA shares are per bar, not blended |
October columns are the JFBA membership PDF. June columns are JILA, which uses the 30 June 2026 JFBA roll and excludes gaiben. A counsel registered at a law firm is in the October bengoshi column and out of the June in-house column.
JILA's employer table for June 2026 counts 1,552 employers and 3,756 people. In June 2025 the same series counted 1,539 employers and 3,596 people. The definition, printed on the table, is a bengoshi who is an officer or employee of a company, a foreign company's Japan branch, or another non-government juridical person, and who has registered that entity's address as the law-office address. The twenty employers with the most in-house bengoshi, summed from that ranking, account for 538 of the 3,756. Naming them describes the market. It does not describe a client.
| Rank, June 2026 | Employer | In-house bengoshi |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | LINE Yahoo | 73 |
| 2 | Mitsui & Co. | 42 |
| 3 | Marubeni | 35 |
| 4 | Amazon Japan | 33 |
| 5 | Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank | 31 |
| 6 | Nomura Securities | 30 |
| 7 | Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking | 28 |
| 8 | Accenture | 27 |
| 8 | Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation | 27 |
| 8 | Mitsubishi Corporation | 27 |
| 11 | Recruit | 22 |
| 12 | SMBC Nikko Securities | 20 |
| 12 | Sumitomo Corporation | 20 |
| 12 | Toyota Tsusho | 20 |
| 15 | KDDI | 19 |
| 15 | MUFG Bank | 19 |
| 17 | NTT Docomo | 17 |
| 17 | Mizuho Securities | 17 |
| 19 | Itochu | 16 |
| 20 | Sumitomo Electric Industries | 15 |
Summed from those twenty rows only: six trading companies account for 160, seven bank, trust and securities employers for 172, LINE Yahoo, Amazon Japan and Recruit for 128, KDDI and NTT Docomo for 36, Accenture for 27, and Sumitomo Electric Industries for 15. LINE Yahoo moved from 80 in June 2025 to 73 in June 2026 while the national stock rose from 3,596 people at 1,539 employers to 3,756 at 1,552. A registered headcount is not an open requisition.
Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu, on 18 September 2026, records that the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act amendments on tender offers came into force on 1 May 2026. The mandatory threshold moved from above one-third to 30 percent, and ordinary on-market purchases are now inside the rule. The listed-company M&A chair is staffed against that rule. Private-practice context for the city is legal recruitment in Tokyo. The wider market map is Legal Market Tokyo 2026.
03 — Licensing
The Ministry of Justice states the rule directly. Attorney Act Article 72 prohibits anyone who is not a Japanese attorney from handling legal business for payment as a business, and the prohibition applies to a foreign lawyer. The exception is the gaiben: Minister of Justice approval, then registration on the roll kept by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations. Permitted work is the law of the primary qualification. A New York qualification supports New York law. Other foreign law needs a separate ministerial designation and a notation on the roll. A gaiben registration does not confer a Japanese-law practice.
JILA's count has a registration quirk. An in-house bengoshi, on that table, has moved the registered law-office address to the employer. A bengoshi who joins a company and stays registered at a firm remains on the October membership table and drops out of the June in-house table. The 3,130 figure is that narrower stock. Unadmitted staff work in the same departments. Article 72 is why a Japanese-law opinion and a court or agency filing sit with a bengoshi.
The scorecard in week one is therefore short.
Across 250 structured interviews on that same Hong Kong in-house line, the constraint that repeats is the credential, not a missing yen band. The line has been worked for 8 years. Completion on its closed searches is 93 percent, which is the rate after the recast. It is not the firm's retained-corporate completion rate of 92 percent, and it is not evidence that a dual-ticket brief works.
04 — Notice and timeline
The published general-counsel clock stops at the accepted offer: 24 days to a shortlist, 11 weeks median, range 8 to 16, across 38 searches since 2017. The Hong Kong in-house line that covers Tokyo is a different instrument. Its typical timeline is 4 to 7 months. Median time from offer to signature on that line is 16 working days. Counter-offer incidence on that line is 30 percent. Those three figures are not the 11-week GC median, and they are not a Tokyo-only median.
After acceptance, the clock is the candidate's contract. For an indefinite-term employee, Civil Code Article 627, paragraph 1, sets resignation at two weeks from notice, without the employer's consent. The Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training, in Japan Labor Issues, volume 10, number 57 (Spring 2026), states that the employer may not extend that period, citing Labor Standards Act Article 5 and Constitution Article 22. A rule requiring company approval to resign has no legal force: Takano Meriyasu, Tokyo District Court, 29 October 1976. JETRO records the same two-week resignation, and records that a company rule demanding more than two weeks has been held invalid when the period is unreasonable. A fixed-term contract is a different rule.
Dismissal runs the other direction. JETRO states that an employer who dismisses must give at least 30 days' notice, or pay 30 days' wages to dismiss without notice. That obligation belongs to the company ending the contract. The candidate who is resigning serves the notice in the contract being left. Two weeks is the floor an indefinite-term employee can insist on. The start date is the notice that is actually served.
A gaiben approval does not fit inside those two weeks. Ministerial approval and Federation registration are a licensing file. The Ministry publishes criteria and documents, not a processing-day clock, and the firm book has no processing-day figure either. Where the permanent seat cannot wait, interim cover is a separate product: 60+ interim and fractional engagements since 2017, outside the 230+, median 7 days from first call to start. An interim general counsel for a Series C fintech in San Francisco was live on day 6. Cover while a permanent search runs. Not a substitute for a gaiben approval, and not part of the 38.
05 — Compensation
Two instruments are public, and they describe different populations. The Japan Federation of Bar Associations' 2023 White Paper, in the section on the prior calendar year's receipts and income, reports a median of 15 million yen in receipts (a 5 percent trimmed mean of 20.826 million yen) on 1,954 answers, and a median taxable income of 8 million yen (a 5 percent trimmed mean of 10.223 million yen) on 1,839 answers. Of those who answered the filing question, 95.4 percent had filed a return. That is a distribution of attorneys generally. It is not a W-2 for a Tokyo general counsel, and it is not the cash a trading company pays the person who runs its tender-offer file.
The second instrument is one employer, and the posting is closed. JICA's partner site carried a Legal Affairs Division specialist-attorney role in the General Affairs Department, planned start March 2025. Grade 7 monthly base pay was 555,630 yen, described as about 10 million yen a year. Bonuses were paid in June and December. A special-city allowance applied in the Tokyo special wards. Housing, dependent and retirement allowances were not paid. There was no annual raise on that grade. That cell is a public corporation. It is not a listed platform, and it is not a sogo shosha general counsel.
Cash for the seat is read on the page that owns it. Lawyer salary in Japan, 2026 holds the Japan cell, including the 15 million yen median and the JICA print. In-house counsel salary, 2026 is the department bench. General counsel salary, 2026 is the chair. The index is salary and compensation. The programme band for a deputy general counsel is 220,000 to 380,000 US dollars. That band is not a Tokyo quote, and it is not converted into yen.
The retained fee is a term of the engagement, not a city band. The fee is 25–30 percent of the hire's total first-year compensation. Thirty percent of that fee is paid as a retainer when the search is engaged, and it is kept if the client cancels. A retained GC, CLO or CCO search carries a 12-month replacement term. Other in-house searches carry 6 months. Off-limits on the client's legal department run 24 months, and a lawyer we have placed is not approached for as long as they stay. There is no contingency track. The fee letter goes out with the brief.
Hiring in Tokyo?
Bengoshi, gaiben, or neither. The letter records the fee and the replacement term before any approach.
06 — Which chair
The June 2026 ranking says where registered bengoshi already sit. The brief says which file the next hire owns. The chairs do not share a scorecard.
When the chair is the general counsel, the parent search is general counsel search. When notice will not move, the parallel product is interim and fractional counsel.
07 — How a search runs
The brief is where a Tokyo search goes wrong. Which entity employs. Whether the signature is Japanese law, home-country law, or neither. Which regulator the file meets. What notice the likely leaver will serve. The fee letter goes with that page.
Mapping uses the research programme's profile map, 1,480,000+ lawyers, cut to people who have held the file: a tender offer under the rule in force since 1 May 2026, a trading-company joint venture, a bank perimeter, a platform's Japan entity. Outreach is blind until both sides want a conversation. The shortlist carries dossiers. For a general counsel the published average is 24 days to that shortlist. For a deputy or head of legal it is 21 days, across 47 placements, and 10 weeks to an accepted offer.
The offer is priced from the salary page that matches the seat, not from the 15 million yen attorney median and not from the Houston deputy band. Notice is scheduled before the candidate resigns. On the Hong Kong in-house line, 30 percent of files drew a counter-offer, so the replacement term is already in the letter.
08 — Published files
Seven case studies are published. Six are company-side. None is a Tokyo mandate.
09 — Sources
10 — Questions
A general counsel or a chief executive hires them when the person who can do the work is already employed. On 1 October 2026 the Japan Federation of Bar Associations counted 24,362 bengoshi on Tokyo's three bars. On 30 June 2026 the Japan In-house Lawyers Association counted 3,130 in-house bengoshi on those bars, out of 3,756 nationally. Sartori & Partners has completed 400+ placements since 2017 (230+ in-house), including 52 general counsel and chief legal officer searches.
JILA's June 2026 ranking counts bengoshi who have moved their registered law-office address to the employer. The twenty employers with the most sum to 538 of 3,756 people: LINE Yahoo 73, then trading companies, banks, trust banks, securities houses, Amazon Japan, Recruit, KDDI, NTT Docomo and Accenture. It is a headcount, not an open-job list, and not a client list.
The credential. Japanese-law sign-off sits with a bengoshi. The Ministry of Justice requires approval and a Japan Federation of Bar Associations registration before a gaiben may handle the law of the primary qualification; other foreign law needs a further designation. Attorney Act Article 72 is why a non-bengoshi may not practice law for payment as a business. Asking one person to be both stalled 4 of 9 Tokyo-coverage files on the Hong Kong in-house line. Those files were recast as bengoshi-only.
On an indefinite-term contract, Civil Code Article 627, paragraph 1, is two weeks, without the employer's consent. Japan Labor Issues vol. 10, no. 57 (Spring 2026) states the employer may not stretch that period (Labor Standards Act Article 5; Constitution Article 22). Takano Meriyasu, Tokyo District Court, 29 October 1976, held that a company-approval rule has no legal force. JETRO records a separate employer rule: at least 30 days' notice to dismiss, or 30 days' wages in lieu. Acceptance ends the search. A gaiben approval is not a two-week item.
Across 52 general counsel and chief legal officer searches since 2017, the shortlist arrives in 24 days on average and the accepted offer in a median of 11 weeks, range 8 to 16. A NASDAQ-listed medtech in Boston hired a successor general counsel from a shortlist of four on day 24, with the accepted offer in week 11. The retained fee is 25–30 percent of total first-year compensation. Thirty percent of the fee is paid at engagement. Replacement is 12 months for a GC, CLO or CCO, and 6 months for other in-house searches. Offer acceptance is 96 percent. Retained corporate completion is 92 percent. The Hong Kong in-house line that covers Tokyo uses a different clock: 4 to 7 months.
Neither public instrument, read alone. The JFBA 2023 White Paper put prior-year median attorney receipts at 15 million yen (N = 1,954) and median taxable income at 8 million yen (N = 1,839). A closed JICA posting, planned start March 2025, stated grade 7 base pay of 555,630 yen a month, about 10 million yen a year, bonuses in June and December, a Tokyo special-city allowance, and no housing, dependent or retirement allowance. Trading-company and bank chairs are priced on the Japan salary page. The retained fee is 25–30 percent of whatever total first-year compensation the offer actually carries.
11 — Related
Hiring in Tokyo?
Bengoshi, gaiben, or a counsel who instructs both. Retained, confidential, and scoped before anyone is called.
