Shuichi Sugahisa

Shuichi Sugahisa is a member of the Firm’s Antitrust & Competition group at Baker McKenzie's Tokyo office.

Shuichi is the Former Secretary General of the Japan Fair Trade Commission. He has been engaged in competition law practice and policy — with a focus on the Antimonopoly Act and other related laws — for approximately 40 years since joining the JFTC in 1983. During his tenure at the JFTC, he worked on important regulatory reforms, including the 2002 amendment of the Antimonopoly Act, the 2017 revision of the Guidelines for Distribution and Trade Practices and the 2019 amendment of the Antimonopoly Act (including the enactment of rules and regulations regarding newly established determination procedures (Japanese Attorney-Client Privilege)).

Shuichi was also involved in major legislative efforts at the Consumer Affairs Agency, including the enactment of the Food Labelling Law, the Act on Special Measures against Shifting of Consumption Tax in 2013 and two amendments to the Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations in 2014. On the enforcement side, he handled a number of cases with significant socioeconomic impacts, such as large-scale cartel cases and merger control cases involving transactions between large companies.

During his JFTC tenure, Shuichi served as Director General of the Trade Practices Department, Director General of the Economic Affairs Bureau and Secretary General of the JFTC. He was instrumental in strengthening the enforcement of the Antimonopoly Act and also worked vigorously on strengthening advocacy activities by the JFTC.