On 5 September, Yamada Business Consulting (YBC) organized a seminar in Tokyo, attended by close to 300 Japan-based executives, to discuss the potential and pitfalls of cross-border Mergers & Acquistions (M&A). Leon Perera, Chief Executive Officer of Spire Research and Consulting, joined the concluding panel together with Patrick Becker, MD of Shanghai-based M&A advisory firm Bexuco and Yukuo Takenaka, head of US-based consultancy Takenaka Partners. Leon and the other panelists discussed the experience of cross-border M&A transactions by Japanese firms. The panel shared their views on the effectiveness of Japanese corporations in identifying and executing M&A deals as well as running effective post-merger integration (PMI). The speakers gave insights on key factors to consider when going ahead with a deal. These included paying sufficient attention to human factors, not “over-researching” the target company and navigating the challenges of some M&A