Representing Japanese corporations for almost 90 years, Chicago-based Masuda Funai has seen the evolution of Japanese investment in the country. President Thomas McMenamin has noted that Japanese activity in the Great Lakes region has clearly been growing recently.

Several Japanese companies that ventured to the United States in the 1980s and 1990s, according to McMenamin, have begun outgrowing their existing facilities. Now, these companies are expanding their plants or constructing new ones. Masuda Funai, which also has offices in Los Angeles, oversees an average of six expansions every year.
This increased activity was also evident in the area of mergers and acquisitions. In the last six years, Masuda Funai has seen the annual number of M&A deals double as the complexity of these deals grow. It has handled more mid-market acquisitions for Japanese companies than any other U.S. law firm.
But Masuda Funai’s focus is not merely transactional. With information and technology playing a bigger role in a company’s success, the firm has become more assertive in protecting the intellectual property of its clients.
“If someone is infringing upon, or alleging infringement by, one of our clients, our client will assert their position vigorously,” stressed the firm’s patent litigator, Mike Golenson.