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In June 2026, Daiso reached a milestone of 6,000 global store locations and is now aiming to expand its international retail footprint to 10,000 store locations by 2030.
Store-related agreements make up 60-70% of the legal team's 250 to 350 monthly review requests. Most leases arrive on the landlord's paper, so each one needs individual review. The highest risks sit in termination terms, including early move-out penalties, deposit returns, and restoration obligations. That’s where disputes typically surface, so the team negotiates those terms up front to protect the business.
Six people cover every domestic and international matter, including compliance and whistleblower programs, and experienced legal talent is hard to hire. Shiho Ushimizu, Deputy General Manager of the Global Legal Department, personally conducts a second-pass review of every contract. Training a new hire to independence took at least a year of one-on-one guidance from senior colleagues, time the team couldn't spare.
Daiso tried other tools and found that competing products either couldn't review PDF contracts directly or struggled with Word files. LegalOn handled both, and the team was eager to put the LegalOn AI Assistant to work.
Today, the team runs LegalOn's contract review alongside custom playbooks built on Daiso's own review standards. Shiho-san describes the combination as a double-check for junior and senior reviewers alike. When a clause deviates from Daiso’s playbook, each flag comes with an explanation, so newer team members learn why a change matters, and the colleagues training them get time back.
The team relies heavily on the LegalOn Assistant to summarize revision rationale for business teams and to surface risk areas before review begins. Shiho-san also uses it as a sounding board for unfamiliar contract types.
At renewal, LegalOn’s compare capability shows exactly what changed between the prior lease agreement and the new draft. It catches clauses that shifted during negotiation without legal sign-off and keeps the business from signing an outdated version.
LegalOn’s translation capabilities support more than 30 languages, including English, Thai, Vietnamese, and Portuguese, which lets the team handle contracts from overseas subsidiaries. The team previously relied on paid external software and machine translation, and checking that output was a burden. Now, bilingual staff say the translations read naturally, and the foreign-language agreements get the same review as the Japanese ones.
LegalOn runs inside Daiso's company-wide workflow system. Business teams submit requests, reviewers run AI reviews and respond within the workflow, and signed contracts are uploaded and stored automatically. Auto-renewing agreements trigger alerts six months and two months before renewal, giving the team time to renegotiate or exit before terms roll over.
Since adopting LegalOn, Daiso has seen measurable gains:
"AI review minimizes the risk of oversights at the first-pass stage. As a result, I can focus on the important judgment calls, and my review workload has dropped significantly.” — Shiho Ushimizu, Assistant General Manager, Global Legal Department, Daiso Industries
LegalOn takes the first pass on every contract, catching gaps and explaining why they matter. That gets new hires to real judgment calls sooner and gives Shiho-san time back for the decisions that need her. The next step is a legal team that sits closer to leadership as a risk-consulting partner, bringing alternatives instead of objections.
For a six-person team supporting a push to 10,000 stores, LegalOn has made it possible for Daiso's legal team not only to keep up, but to step up.
Ready to do more with the team you have? Book a demo to see how LegalOn helps in-house teams work faster without adding headcount.
