Demystifying Corporate Boards in Japan with Catherine O’Connell

The FocusCore Podcast

This week I am excited to turn the podcasting tables on my guest Catherine O’Connell, who is host and cohost of two fantastic podcasts; Lawyer On Air and Jandals in Japan. If you haven’t listened to those two podcasts I highly recommend them both! Catherine is the principal and founder of her boutique commercial law firm based in Tokyo, Catherine O'Connell Law. She is the first foreign female to set up her own law practice in Tokyo and won Tokyo Foreign Lawyer of the Year Award in 2022, Boutique Law Firm of the Year Award in 2023, and is the recipient of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2020. One of Catherine’s missions in life is to change the boardrooms of traditional Japan from the inside, sharing her lived experience through board coaching programs to demystify and open pathways for people to access and attain roles on Japanese corporate boards.

In this episode you will hear:

• How Catherine went from being a tour guide in New Zealand to studying law and working as a foreign lawyer in Japan
• What motivated Catherine to set up Catherine O’Connell Law, her own law firm in Tokyo
• About the lack of diversity in terms of board governance in Japan
• What Japanese companies can do now to diversify their boards
• What women leaders can do to open boardroom doors for themselves and others

Things mentioned in the episode:

Statistical Information about female board members in Japan: https://www.nikkei.co.jp/nikkeiinfo/en/global_services/nikkei-bp/female-board-member-survey-which-japanese-company-has-the-highest-percentage-of-female-board-members.html

About Catherine O’Connell:

Catherine O’Connell is Principal & Founder of her boutique commercial law firm based in Tokyo, Catherine O’Connell Law. She is the first foreign female to set up her own law practice in Tokyo. She won Boutique Law Firm of the Year Award 2023 and Foreign Lawyer of the Year Award 2022 and is the recipient of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2020.

Significantly, Catherine has been appointed in June 2023 as an Independent Audit & Supervisory Board Member of TOYOTA Motor Corporation. In June 2022 she was appointed as Outside Audit & Supervisory Board member of FUJITSU Limited. Through both of these appointments she has become the first non-Japanese female in Japanese corporate history to serve in this role on any Japanese Board. She is also Statutory Auditor on ASX-listed Japan subsidiary of CSL Behring.

Catherine presides as Vice-Chair of the Australian & New Zealand Chamber of Commerce of Japan, is co-Chair of the Legal Services & IP Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan and is immediate Past President of NPO, Women in Law Japan (2021-2023).

Prior to launching her law practice in 2018, Catherine was Head of Legal and APAC Regional Legal Counsel for Molex Japan LLC. She held senior In-House Legal Counsel positions Panasonic, Olympus and Mitsubishi Motors, and has extensive private practice experience at Hogan Lovells (Tokyo and London) and Anderson Lloyd (New Zealand).

Catherine hosts the award-winning “Lawyer on Air” Podcast sharing inspirational stories about women working in the law in Japan and she co-hosts the “Jandals in Japan” podcast about successful New Zealand business in Japan.

Connect with Catherine O’Connell:

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/oconnellcatherine/

Website: www.catherineoconnelllaw.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/lawyeronair/

Connect with David Sweet:

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/focuscorejp

Facebook: :https://www.facebook.com/focuscoreasia

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/focuscorejp/

Website: https://www.japan.focuscoregroup.com/

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