Japan Marketing Manager

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Reports to: Chief Marketing Officer

ABOUT COMPASS BOX WHISKY

Compass Box is the most-awarded independent whiskymaker in the world. Since 2000, the company has built a global reputation for creativity, transparency, and award-winning flavour-first Scotch whiskymaking. Drawing from an exceptional range of aged whiskies from over 40 distilleries across Scotland, Compass Box creates a range of Scotch super blends, with flavours no single distillery can deliver on its own. Full transparency, no artificial colouring, no chill-filtration, no shortcuts, just more flavour.

YOUR MISSION

Compass Box is on an exciting global scaling journey, built on 25 years of heritage and an award-winning range of Scotch whisky recognised the world over. This is a newly created role and our first dedicated marketing hire locally. You get to shape Compass Box’s presence in Japan, building on strong brand and commercial momentum in the market. Working directly with our CMO, our Japan Commercial lead, and our agency partners, you will build Brand Desire in Japan and translate momentum into sales velocity.

YOUR ROLE AS JAPAN MARKETING MANAGER

You are Compass Box in Japan – you bring to life the brand in Japan. You take our global brand, product stories, and local partner opportunities to grow our brand in one of the world’s most discerning whisky markets, with a Japan-first mindset. You work in partnership with our Commercial lead, distributor, premium retail, local agency, bars, and a community of Japanese whisky lovers.

WHAT YOU WILL ACTUALLY DO

• Build the brand in Japan. With support from the global CMO and our local agency, you own the local brand-building agenda: awareness, desire, distinctiveness. Make Compass Box a well-known, respected, and admired premium name in the Japanese whisky landscape, through the moments, the media, and the cultural presence that shape how the brand is understood.
• Create for Japan. Every touchpoint – content, activation, community, message – is created with a Japan-first mindset, reading naturally in Japanese, tailored to local category codes, and looking and sounding unmistakably Compass Box. No compromises on cultural resonance.
• Build the community. Champion the brand with bartenders, specialist retailers, whisky media, and the enthusiast community through events, festivals, masterclasses, and partnerships that build advocacy, one meaningful relationship at a time.
• Deliver activation in-market. Execute in-store activation, tastings, on-premise programmes, and retail visibility that meet Japanese trade expectations, working from global concepts where relevant and creating fresh where needed.
• Commercial partnership. Be the day-to-day marketing counterpart to our Japan Commercial lead and Japanese distributor: joint marketing plans, campaign calendars, launch programmes, and the trade support that helps their sales team sell Compass Box with confidence.
• Be our eyes and ears. Consumer and trade insight, competitor moves, pricing signals, and product feedback fed back to the CMO, Commercial team, and Whiskymaking team to shape what we make and how we sell it.
• Partner with the centre. Work in lockstep with the central Marketing team and CMO. They build the global storytelling engine and empower your Japan-first work; you feed local learning into the system, and get prioritised support back in return.

WHAT THIS ROLE IS NOT

Not a sales role: commercial targets, pricing, and the distributor P&L sit with our Japan Commercial lead. Not a translation function: we create for Japan, with full local consumer- and customer-centricity, and a strong focus on cultural programming.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

• Experience. 4-7 years in brand, trade, or field marketing for premium spirits, wine, or an adjacent premium category in Japan, with real experience working through a distributor model.
• Language. Native-level Japanese and fluent business English, with the cultural fluency to move between a London brand team and Japanese trade partners.
• Character. Humble, hungry, collaborative, resilient. These character traits are the primary filter we look for in colleagues.
• Capabilities. Hands-on execution ability in a one-person market role, strong bar and specialist retail networks, aesthetic judgement worthy of the Japanese premium shelf, and genuine passion for whisky and the people who make and serve it.

WHY JOIN COMPASS BOX

• You’ll work directly with senior leaders and decision-makers, in a business where good ideas move fast and you’re expected to bring them.
• You’ll operate genuinely globally, with real cultural exposure across the US, Japan, China, France, the UK, and more – not global on a slide, global in your calendar.
• You’ll join a team who share a bar of high standards and low ego, and who are building something ambitious and exciting together.
• You’ll receive a pension, healthcare, and a monthly allowance to bring home the whisky we make together.
• You’ll grow. In an environment where responsibility comes early, feedback is honest, and ambition is expected; and so is looking after yourself and each other.

Interested? Send us your CV and a short note on why this role, at this company, at this moment feels right for you. No cover letter formalities needed. Just tell us what drew you in and what you’d bring.