Bridging Borders: The Diplomatic Lawyer in Japan with Kaori Oka

Lawyer on Air

From her early days of wanting to be a diplomat and instead becoming a lawyer, Kaori Oka is now the diplomatic founder of Oka Fortuna Law, a law firm based in Tokyo. We follow Kaori’s exciting career path and see how time and time again she created and asked for opportunities to have the experiences she wanted not only in her career but also in her life. Kaori will surprise you with some fantastic insights into starting your own firm and being recommended for board positions.

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In this episode you’ll hear:

• What happened when Kaori attended the final interview for the Foreign Affairs department

• How Kaori created her own opportunity for a secondment and international work experience

• Kaori's advice on maintaining connections along the way of your career path

• Her two favourite sayings that guide her, something that you don't know about her and what she's most looking forward to in 2024.

About Kaori

Kaori Oka is the founder of OKA FORTUNA LAW, a law firm based in Tokyo, Japan.

Kaori graduated from Tokyo University with an LLB and started her career in 2006 at Bingham McCutchen LLP, Tokyo office, being in charge of global M&A and high-impact cartel cases.

She then moved to Iwata Godo in 2010, seeing her mission as pushing forward Iwata Godo’s international practice, which was still very small at that time. As part of that, Kaori was seconded to HKIAC, the Hong Kong International Arbitration Center, and also seconded to two US law firms, Steptoe & Johnson, and Baker & Miller PLLC, both based in Washington DC to develop relationships with firms and organizations overseas.

Becoming a partner, and also satisfied to see the success of Iwata Godo in the international practice arena, she then moved to Deloitte Legal, Japan in 2016. There were only 5 lawyers at that time and Kaori fully enjoyed her role to develop Deloitte Legal Japan’s business and enhance the presence of Japan legal to Deloitte’s network.

In July 2023, Kaori opened her solo practice in Tokyo to devote her passion to helping foreign clients succeed in their business in Japan. Her expertise is general corporate, cross-border M&A and reorganization schemes and commercial transactions.

She is also a Supervisory Board Member at Maruwn Corporation and is nominated in two other listed companies in 2024 for similar positions.

Kaori enjoys her life by mountaineering, hiking, traveling, jogging, jazz, and 30 minute daily meditation. On top of that, she is a huge fan of dogs and is planning to get one this year, finally!

Connect with Kaori

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaorioka/

Links

ビストロヌガ Bistro Le Nougat https://www.lenougat.jp/

Connect with Catherine

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