Dr. Yorikatsu Hohokabe Has Been Elected as a Director for LES 2025-2026

Oblon is pleased to announce that Dr. Yorikatsu Hohokabe has been again elected as one of the Directors of LES Japan for 2025-2026.

His term for Director will be until February 19, 2026, which is the 6th consecutive years after resignation of a Vice President (for seven consecutive years of Vice Presidency) and 5-year term as Director before Vice Presidency from 2006. (11 years in total as Director and 7 years as Vice President, with two years' interruption during his stay in Alexandria office in 2008 and 2009.)

He will also continue to be a leader of U.S. Issues Working Group for this year (for 15 consecutive years); number of members of this WG is 25 practitioners (Japanese attorney-at-law, Japanese patent attorneys, U.S. attorneys, non-attorneys from industries), and also a leader of U.S. Issues (Kansai) Working Group for this year (for 7 consecutive years since established in 2019); number of members of this WG: 10 practitioners. (Total numbers correspond to 5% of total numbers of LES Japan members.)

Dr. Yorikatsu Hohokabe is a “Tanka” poet (Note: “Tanka” is a Japanese poem of thirty-one syllables, lasting for thirteen hundred years) and has been appointed as The Director of Saito Mokichi Memorial Museum (an incorporated foundation), since October 1, 2024, under his pen name “NAMI Katsuhiko”. This museum is a memorial museum for “SAITO Mokichi”, one of the most prominent “Tanka” poets in the 20^th century in Japan and was founded in Kaminoyama-city, Yamagata-Pref. in 1968 (http://www.mokichi.or.jp).