January 8, 2024
After completing Kyoto University Law School in 2016, passing the bar exam in the same year, and becoming a registered attorney in 2017 (affiliated with the Daini Tokyo Bar Association), Tonfi Yuki joined SmartNews in 2019, where he now leads the legal team of Japan. While involved in strategic legal matters centered on law, politics, and technology, he continues to research the potential and responsibilities of information.
My name is Tonfi Yuki. As you can probably guess from my name, I am Japanese, but I was born into a Korean family. I was born and raised in Osaka, attended university and graduate school in Kyoto, and then moved to Tokyo after becoming a lawyer. A few years later, I met Ken Suzuki (Chairman of SmartNews) by chance in the US, which led to me joining SmartNews five years ago.
I was very attracted to the law itself and became a lawyer. I’ve always been interested in communities, individual happiness, and democracy, so becoming a legal practitioner on the frontlines of creating and operating the rules of society seemed like a natural path. As social animals, humans rely on rules, contracts, and agreements to function in society. We rely on some kind of contract almost every day. For example, wherever we use SmartNews, YouTube, or any Google service, we’re engaging with contracts.
The law is a means to an end. Becoming a lawyer was not my goal. Instead, I wanted to be a position that would allow me to use rules or contracts as a way to achieve something. For people to live happily in this society in the future, I think it is essential and very interesting to have a deep knowledge of the law and to apply it appropriately to the rules. That is why I continue to work as a lawyer.
I serve as the manager of the JP legal team. As a qualified expert in Japanese law, I handle strategic legal matters on the front lines for our company, which operates in global markets. I examine the legality of new products, services, and campaigns, discuss the structure of business partnerships and fundraising, and establish internal governance. I handle all the legal issues the company faces. On the less typical side of legal work, I’m involved in designing the rules for how content should be displayed in the SmartNews app and what constitutes "quality information" from a legal perspective. This also includes ensuring that AI is used appropriately and safely in the company's products and services.
I often collaborate with engineers and people in the product department when working on products. Since advertising and subscription services are our revenue streams, I also frequently work with those departments.
A feature that’s probably unique to the legal team at SmartNews is how closely we work with the management team. Because we communicate with them daily, we can get a firsthand understanding of how they view the business. We also work well with the teams that process data to protect the privacy of our users, given the vast amount of data we deal with. Last is the corporate department, where we work closely with the governance team, the HR team, the incentive compensation design and management team, and the risk and compliance team. Now that I’ve had to put it into words we work with almost everyone in the company, don’t we?
The biggest change was the change in the roles of Ken and Kaisei. I had been working in the CEO's Office for a long time with Ken, who was the CEO when I joined. I’d also worked closely with Yi Ren (CS0) regarding corporate matters and Kaisei, who was CTO at the time, on data-related topics. In November 2023, Ken became Chairman of the Board, and Kaisei became President (CEO). This was a big change for both the company and myself.
Of course, there have been many significant changes in business as well. The massive spread of the new coronavirus caused a surge of users seeking information, and the company grew quickly as a result. Then, the growth of the advertising market stopped worldwide again. It would be great if the company could continue its easy growth, but the fact that such a thing isn’t possible is actually what makes work interesting.
Another big change was that, before I knew it, I became the longest-serving employee on the legal team. Whereas I was in the position to learn when I first joined, I’m now the one who gets to do the teaching.
The arrival of Cory (Cory Ondrejaka/CTO) in October of 2023 was another major event. Within a very short time, he had completely digested the history and philosophy of SmartNews and used it to create our new product vision, presenting the kind of product we’d create in the following year, the year of the US presidential election. I feel that his leadership is what we need for SmartNews to become number one in the US market.
So many things have happened over the past four years. It’s been a real whirlwind. To be honest, I was trying to adapt quickly to so many changes that I don't remember all of them.
I’ve learned a lot about managing an organization under intense pressure to grow in a global company. The challenges in a global company are the language barrier and physical communication. For example, it’s easy for me to meet and communicate with people working in the Tokyo office, but communication is basically entirely online for members in our San Francisco, New York, Palo Alto, China, and Singapore offices.
The challenge that I have been facing is how to truly understand people from different cultures and how to move projects forward. While I learned a lot from my many colleagues and from the management methods of leaders in different countries, I’ve also learned from my own experience and a sense that if I manage things in a certain way, it will go well.
I've also taken on a position where I lead a team as a manager, and that's a big factor as well. As a lawyer, there are many tasks you can do on your own, so while project management skills are required even in law firms, constant team management skills were not something that was regularly asked of me. After joining this company and becoming a manager, I started handling tasks like communicating with subordinates and conducting performance evaluations. I was trained to clearly think about how each team member can grow and advance in their career.
Working at a tech company like SmartNews also deepened my expertise in areas such as data, AI, and organizational governance. Companies like SmartNews often face issues where laws, contracts, and regulations are still undeveloped and there hasn't been enough discussion around them. It's like steering a ship in a storm with only a compass to rely on. It's incredibly exciting.
I actually wrote a book on the Constitution when I was in graduate school. At the time, I never thought that my knowledge of the Constitution would be useful in business, but when I came to this company, I started to have a lot of discussions related to the Constitution. Topics such as freedom of expression, the right to privacy, governance, and the democracy they support are areas that are closely related to the Constitution and topics we consider here at SmartNews.
The atmosphere on the team is good. We trust each other, which facilitates collaboration and consultation, but we also work independently. The organization itself has a high level of psychological safety. There are also many women on the legal team, whereas on legal teams in general, and especially in startups, you tend to see mostly male employees. I think it’s a good balance.
Someone who can take advantage of opportunities to grow by themselves. This company is a startup, so there is a lot of work that needs to be done. Opportunities for growth are everywhere, and it is important to be able to actively take advantage of them. And since there are top-notch people around us, it is important that they are willing to learn best practices from them. Therefore, I feel that people who prefer to wait for instructions won’t thrive here, whereas people who can find work on their own, find issues, and correct them will grow and develop.
SmartNews is a unique company. As a startup, we need to grow quickly and pursue sales and profits. At the same time, however, we are a group of people who seriously think about our core value of “For the Common Good,” or what is in the public interest or what is good for society. Someone who likes that kind of culture will be a good fit.
