After four tumultuous years in the Asia markets, Hong Kong in particular, 2023 was viewed optimistically as a bounceback opportunity. With the relaxation of travel restrictions, social gathering limits, PPE mandates, an air of positivity returned to the region. Alas that air has yet to permeate the markets and dealflow, with one or two exceptions, has been flat.
A flat deal market inevitably leads circumspection in recruitment and staffing. We have read stories of cutbacks in major firms who had perhaps a little too much faith in the market’s ability to spring back and were left with no option but to re-tailor certain practice groups, and even looked at their Asian coverage as a whole with entire regional offices being shuttered as priorities shifted and resources were pooled.
However one market seems to have embraced this moment as one to branch out further afield. Japanese firms have frequently featured in the news for their international expansion projects throughout this time, a response to a rise in outward investment. Japan was the third largest FDI contributor to Vietnam, inspiring Anderson, Mori & Tomotsune to join the rest of the Japanese “Big Four” in the capital Hanoi in June, supplementing its existing operation in Ho Chi Minh City. Also established in Hanoi is TMI Associates who themselves announced a new office opening in Paris in March, while Miura & Associates, only founded in Japan in 2019, spread their international wings with new opening announcements in Jakarta, London and San Francisco, with a further launch scheduled for February 2024 in the favoured destination of Vietnam, this time in Ho Chi Minh City.
To be clear the business plan of these firms is very much to follow and advise on outbound Japanese investment (as well as chase deal flow coming back the other way) but it’s clear they have seen enough to encourage them to make these investments which certainly go against market trends in the region. Traditionally viewed as one of the more conservative Asian legal markets, we will see if fortune favours the brave in 2024.