Yoichiro Kuriyama: Learning Sports Law from Overseas

2020/06/23

I attended a combined elementary, junior high, and high school for boys in Tokyo. Since both of my parents were graduates of Keio University, I had been singing "Wakaki-chi" at the Keio-Waseda games since I was an elementary school student, and I vaguely assumed I would go to Keio. While I spent my time from elementary school through high school immersed in soccer, I became interested in how lawyers overseas act as agents for athletes, and I entered the Department of Law in the Faculty of Law with the goal of becoming a lawyer in the future.

After passing the bar exam, I joined my current law firm. After six or seven years as a lawyer, I wanted to systematically study "Sports Law," which was not very well known in Japan, and see the work and working styles of sports lawyers abroad. In 2013, I majored in sports law at a law school in the UK, studying cases such as European soccer and the 2012 London Olympics.

Subsequently, I spent time at the Royal Spanish Football Federation, The Football Association (England), and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), where I was able to experience firsthand the importance of legal affairs in sports and the role of lawyers in sports governing bodies. In European sports organizations, the Office of Legal Affairs is a permanent fixture, and a significant number of lawyers belong to the legal department or other departments. They are proactively involved from the planning stage in designing the systems and rules for competitions and organizations, as well as constructing the mechanisms for events. Furthermore, there are many cases where lawyers are active as members of management, and compared to the Japanese sports world, many more lawyers are active in various capacities.

In Japanese society, which has become a mature society, sports are expected to provide people with new richness and enjoyment as many people get involved by "playing," "watching," and "supporting" them. Currently, based on my experience in Europe, I provide legal advice on sports business, governance, and compliance to sports organizations (governing bodies, leagues, clubs/teams, event organizers, etc.). I hope to continue contributing to the development of sports in Japan by being involved in the design and construction of systems and rules—considering not only legal compliance but also the public nature of sports, social demands for sports, and the interests of a wide range of stakeholders—while aiming for the optimization of each sport as a whole, whether professional or amateur.