Miyoshi America

A Rare Case in Mass Tort Bankruptcy

Miyoshi America is a subsidiary of Miyoshi Kasei, Inc. and a global leader in the development and manufacture of surface treated pigments and mineral substrates for the cosmetics industry. The company found itself forced to defend hundreds of pending lawsuits alleging illnesses caused by its talc-based products. Facing prolonged, high-stakes litigation, the company had an urgent challenge: to resolve existing litigation and fairly account for people who had not yet come forward with claims while avoiding liquidation and preserving the company’s business as a going concern.

While exploring the company’s legal options, Mayer Brown—Miyoshi’s restructuring counsel—understood that a prepackaged Chapter 11 plan would be difficult to execute in a mass tort matter under the bankruptcy code provisions governing legacy tort claims tied to discontinued products. Despite this obstacle, Mayer Brown, working closely with the company’s other advisors at Mori Hamada, Alvarez & Marsal, and Smith Goffman Partners, coordinated with claimants’ counsel and a future claims representative to implement a solicitation effort transparent enough to withstand Court scrutiny, all while moving fast enough to preserve the advantages of a pre-negotiated plan.

Rigorous Solicitation Drives a Swift, Confirmed Plan

Moving full steam ahead, Mayer Brown engaged Stretto to serve as claims, noticing, and solicitation agent. By the time Miyoshi filed for Chapter 11 in the Southern District of Texas in late April 2026, it had already secured the stakeholder support needed for approval, keeping the case streamlined. The Court confirmed its Plan of Reorganization six weeks later, among the fastest turnarounds of its kind and one of the first prepackaged mass tort bankruptcies in the district.

Drawing on its complex claims administration expertise, Stretto’s team implemented a master ballot process that let the law firms representing individual talc claimants vote on their clients’ behalf while ensuring that claimants had properly authorized their attorneys’ votes. Because the case involved HIPAA-protected health information, Stretto also developed a secure, encrypted portal for plaintiffs’ counsel to submit ballots and documentation, along with a custom chain-of-custody system to verify every master ballot.

That rigor proved decisive. At confirmation, the Court noted that an “incredible amount of people” backed the proposal and recognized that “voting was done the right way,” a testament to the clarity and completeness of Stretto’s noticing and balloting work, with no disputes over vote tabulation or claimant documentation, and a result consistent with the case’s broader track record, in which more than 99% of claim holders voted to accept the plan. The Court approved Miyoshi’s reorganization, establishing a trust that gives future claimants a genuine path to recovery, a markedly better outcome than a standard liquidation would have delivered while allowing the company to emerge and continue operations unburdened by ongoing talc litigation.