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Hi All, I have a question I don't know where to go for the answer other than contacting an international lawyer and that would not be approved by my principals. Would anyone here know if a US based
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What else is new?

posted at 12/3/2009 12:47 AM EST
Posts: 188
First: 10/11/1999
Last: 5/5/2010
Hi All,

I have a question I don't know where to go for the answer other than contacting an international lawyer and that would not be approved by my principals. Would anyone here know if a US based company non-compete agreement holds any weight in Japan? It is my gut feeling that laws would be governed by Japanese rules not US. Thanks for any help.
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posted at 12/3/2009 2:54 AM EST
Posts: 1771
First: 10/24/2002
Last: 9/14/2011
Your gut feeling is correct. US-based non-competes are not enforeceable anywhere except in the US. (And sometimes not even there!)
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posted at 12/3/2009 3:57 AM EST
Posts: 188
First: 10/11/1999
Last: 5/5/2010
is there a website where I can print something out to that effect?

thanks so much
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posted at 12/3/2009 5:28 AM EST
Posts: 1771
First: 10/24/2002
Last: 9/14/2011
No. It's not a law per se, it's logic. Different countries have different business competition and employment laws. Non-compete agreements are enforceable because they are based on, and don't violate, the business and employment laws of the country in which they are used. Ergo, a non-compete agreement must be based on the business and employment laws of the country in which they are used in order to be enforceable in that country.

If you want an attorney's opinion on this, you don't need to contact a Japanese or international attorney. Contact your employer's business attorney and ask him/her if a non-compete agreement based on US employment and business law will be enforceable in Japan. If he/she has any brains at all, he/she will say "Probably not."
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posted at 12/3/2009 8:28 AM EST
Posts: 2146
First: 2/15/2006
Last: 9/14/2011
I would think that the reasonable distance/geographic requirement (that most US States require for an NCA to be valid) would be much lower than the distance to Japan from where your office is located.

The only possibility I can see is if the company could prove that they and the other company both operate in the US AND Japan, geographically close to each other. That is the ex-employee went to work for an American-owned company at a Japanese location. But even that would be a stretch.

NCAs are hard to enforce and cost a lot of money to do so.
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posted at 12/4/2009 2:01 AM EST
Posts: 1771
First: 10/24/2002
Last: 9/14/2011
And American-style non-compete would be impossible to enforce on a Japanese national living and working in Japan.
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