Nikkei Business Names Top Japanese Patent Attorneys and Judges

According to Professor Wegner, NIKKEI BUSINESS, the Japanese equivalent of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, published intellectual property attornmet rankings for both the judiciary and the bengoshi (lawyers) on August 1, 2005:

Two of the Top Five Judges Come From Patent Law: The survey ranks only
five judges in its elite list, including two who are widely known in Japan as
leading specialists in patent law. Tied for first place is the Hon.
Ryoichi MIMURA, the widely known jurist who is part of the elite Intellectual
Property High Court. Also on the list is the Hon. Toshiaki IIMURA,
currently the head of the Kofu District Court. Both Judges Mimura and
Iimura made their reputation in patent law over the past decade with key
decisions in the Tokyo District Court.

The Top Eight IP Lawyers (by votes). Only two of the eight are under age
55, signaling a fierce competition for leadership of the intellectual property
bar over the coming decade:

Hidetoshi MASUNAGA
Kazunori YAMAGAMI
Eiji KATAYAMA
Sadao KUMAKURA
Yoichiro KOMATSU
Wataru SUEYOSHI
Kuniaki NOMURA
Toshiro MITSUISHI

Law firms (in all fields) were ranked as follows:

Mori, Hamada & Matsumoto
Nishimura & Partners
Asahi Koma Law Offices
Yanagida & Nomura
Oh-ebashi LPC & Partners
Nagashima, Ono & Tsunematsu
Marunouchi Chuo Law Office
Anderson Mori & Tomotsune
Iwata Godo
TMI Associates
Hibiya Park Law Offices
Nakamura, Tsunoda & Matsumoto
Abe, Ikubo & Katayama