含羞草社区

Introduction

Masafumi Masuda is a partner at Mori Hamada & Matsumoto, specialised in IT and cyberlaw. He leads these emerging practices as the head of the firm’s IT practice group. After serving as a deputy director at the Financial Services Agency of Japan (2018-2020), he has also advised on financial regulations related to fintech and blockchain, as a prominent member of his firm’s Fintech practice group.

Masuda began his career as an IP lawyer in 2008, focusing on digital content-related matters, and worked for the media content division of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan (2009-2010) as the first lawyer secondee of the division. While working as a core member of his firm’s IP practice group, he has also dedicated over 15 years to Creative Commons as a pro bono work. The Nikkei recognised him as one of the leading practitioners in their most recent IP lawyer survey.

In cutting-edge fields such as generative AI, web3 and the metaverse, Masuda is actively involved in government policymaking. He holds a professorship at Hitotsubashi University, teaching information law and courses on “Web3, Metaverse and the Law.” He also serves as an advisor for several major industrial organisation, including the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Japan Online Game Association (JOGA), Blockchain Collaborative Consortium (BCCC), and Japan Cryptoasset Business Association (JCBA).

As accomplished author, Masuda has published several influential books, including “Introduction to Generative AI Law” (2023); “Technology Disputes Law Review, 3rd edition” (2023); “Law and Practice for App Business” (2022); and “Copyright and Rules for Internet Business, 2nd edition” (2020). His book “The NFT Textbook” (2021) is particularly notable as the most well-known publication on the non-fungible token business in Japan.

Masuda earned his BEng from the University of Tokyo (2004), his JD from Chuo Law School (2007), and his LLM in Law, Science and Technology from Stanford Law School (2016). After his studies at Stanford, he practiced at Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago (2016-2017) and his firm’s Singapore office (2017-2018). He has been admitted to practice in Japan since 2008 and in New York State since 2017.