Ayano
Kanezuka

Attorney at law
Of counsel

Ayano Kanezuka is an attorney admitted to the Tokyo Daini Bar and the Paris Bar, with nearly twenty years of experience. She specializes in international business law and, more recently, in art law (France–Japan), drawing on extensive professional experience in both France and Japan.
Thanks to her bicultural background, Ayano Kanezuka has built a strong reputation in Franco-Japanese legal relations and an extensive professional network, notably through her involvement in learned societies. She is a member of the Franco-Japanese Society of Comparative Law and the Henri Capitant Association, and was elected in 2022 as a member of the Société de Législation Comparée (Public Action Section).

Expertise

Ayano began her legal career in Tokyo at a Japanese law firm in Ginza specializing in civil and commercial litigation, before joining the French law firm Cotty Vivant Marchisio & Lauzeral (CVML). She subsequently founded the Tokyo office of Lefèvre-Pelletier & Associés (LPA).
She also served as Chair of the International Committee of the Tokyo Daini Bar Association, contributing to the development of relations with the Paris Bar.

For many years, Ayano has taught French public law at several universities in Tokyo as well as at the University of Montreal. She has published numerous legal articles in Japan and France and co-edited, together with Pascale Bloch, Naoki Kanayama, and Isabelle Giraudou, the leading reference work Japanese Business Law (Larcier, 2019).
She has also published, in French, a major contribution on “The Rule of Law and the Public Health Crisis in Japan” in a collective work published in 2024 by the Société de Législation Comparée. In addition, she has delivered numerous lectures on the protection of fundamental freedoms, including a conference on “Temperature Screening Using Thermal Cameras and the Protection of Personal Data” organized by the Japan Institute of Law and Information.

Ayano ensures FÉRAL‘s presence in Tokyo, where she is based.

Training

Ayano holds a degree from the University of Tokyo and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Hitotsubashi University on Art Market Law in France and Japan.
She completed her legal training at the Legal Training and Research Institute of the Supreme Court of Japan. While preparing for the Paris Bar Examination, she was also enrolled in a Master’s program in Business Law at Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas.

Languages

Ayano Kanezuka speaks French, Japanese and English.

Rankings

Ayano was awarded the rank of Knight of the National Order of Merit, with the insignia presented in 2014 by His Excellency Christian Masset, French Ambassador to Tokyo.
In 2023, Ayano also received the award for Best Legal Article in Telecommunications Law from the KDDI Research Institute in Tokyo.