Non-Profit and Public Corporations

The activities of local governments cover all administrative fields related to local residents, such as welfare, medical care, industry, environment, community planning, taxes, education, water supply, police and firefighting. In addition, as times change, new issues arise that local governments need to address, such as disaster preparedness and unoccupied houses. As a result, the legal issues that local governments face are extensive, and it is often difficult to resolve such issues within the existing framework. In addition to analysis based on specific legislation in the field of administrative law, it is sometimes necessary to go back to basics and study constitutional and other fundamental principles such as the rule of law and public accountability.

We support local governments with comprehensive service, including the drafting of municipal bylaws and advice on legal issues, legal risk and legal aspects of policy work. Our firm includes lawyers who have worked for government agencies, and they have an important role in this work. We advise local governments on handling administrative procedures such as local residents' "audit demands" and administrative appeals of government decisions, and represent local governments in many types of litigation as well as out-of-court settlement negotiations in disputes with residents and other third parties.

We advise and represent a wide variety of non-profit and public corporations, including government-affiliated institutions, schools, medical corporations, industry associations, and associations and foundations organized as ISH (ippan shadan houjin) or IZH (ippan zaidan houjin) entities. Our services for them are comprehensive, including advisory work on issues similar to those arising in a for-profit business, but our advice necessarily takes into account the unique objectives and nature of each client's organization. Iwata Godo advises clients on the establishment and operation of ISH and IZH non-profit legal entities, and represents them in litigation and other dispute resolution. With our expertise in the laws governing non-profits and our experience in negotiations with regulators, we have assisted educational institutions, medical corporations and other non-profits in mergers, restructuring, and the opening of new lines of business such as remote medical services. In our work for the non-profit sector, we provide comprehensive service, leveraging not only our vast experience in this sector, but also our experience in various other fields such as general corporate, M&A and the legal issues of for-profit businesses.