Norton Rose Fulbright is to join the rush of international firms eyeing outbound M&A work from Japan following the hire of its first Japanese-speaking partner from top-four local outfit Nishimura & Asahi.

Eiji Kobayashi, who is a US-qualified Japanese national, was formerly co-head of the cross border transactions group at Nishimura and before that worked in the Houston, Texas and Tokyo offices of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom.