Ashurst is relocating two partners to Tokyo – including its Asia managing partner – to boost its project finance capacity on the ground, as another two partners exit the firm.

Singapore-based banking and finance partner Dominic Gregory will replace Myles Mantel, who has recently left the firm to join Jones Day in London, while Asia chief Matthew Bubb, will also move from Singapore to add further capacity to the practice.

Tokyo corporate partner Damian Roberts is meanwhile soon to leave the office for Herbert Smith Freehills, along with Ian Williams in Brisbane.

Gregory has been a partner at Ashurst since 2012, also working in Hong Kong, and has extensive experience advising on project, acquisition and structured finance.

Bubb has been based in Singapore for more than a decade, and was appointed managing partner for Asia in 2013 replacing long timer and former senior partner of the firm Geoffrey Green. Bubb specialises in financing for regional energy and infrastructure projects.

James Collis, now managing partner of Ashurst, said the Japan office – which opened in 1990 and which focuses mostly on finance and M&A – continued "to operate at the top of the market," and the firm wanted to build on this.

With Gregory and Bubb's arrival, it will have seven partners on the ground including a Bengoshi team.

Ashurst is among a handful of firms to add in Japan since the start of the year.

Norton Rose Fulbright in January hired its first Japanese-speaking partner from top-four local outfit Nishimura & Asahi in a bid to tap more outbound work, as US outfit Greenberg Traurig Maher (GTM) re-opened in the country with a trio of partners from White & Case and DLA Piper.