Why this seat is different in Japan
Global systems do not fit Japan without work. Consumption-tax invoicing under the qualified-invoice system, electronic record-keeping rules, Japanese address and name formats, domestic bank-transfer formats, year-end tax adjustment, and local labour-law requirements in time and attendance all have to be configured, and the global template owner usually does not know that. The programme lead's job is to know it and get it into scope before go-live, not after.
Integration of an acquired Japanese company is a people problem with a legal frame. Harmonising work rules, pay and grades across two workforces is constrained by the principle that working conditions cannot be worsened without consent, by the Labour Contract Succession Act in a company split, and by a workforce that will leave quietly if integration is handled badly. Retention of the acquired company's key people is the measure of success, and it is decided in the first six months.
Vendors and consultants have their own ecosystem. Japanese system integrators and the Japan practices of global consultancies work in Japanese with Japanese contracts and expectations, and the programme lead manages them alongside the global vendor. Candidates come from two camps: consultants who have delivered programmes for clients and operators who have lived with the result. Both work; the second usually lasts longer.
Purpose of the role
Deliver the programme on time, on budget and adopted: scope the Japan requirements, manage vendors and the internal team, align the Japan business with regional and global stakeholders, lead the change so that people use what is built, and hand over a stable operation at the end.
Key responsibilities
Programme leadership
- Own the programme plan, budget, risks and governance, and report to the steering committee in Japan and the regional office.
- Define Japan-specific requirements, including statutory and tax configuration, and get them into global scope.
Delivery
- Manage system integrators, consultants and the global vendor, with Japanese contracts where needed.
- Run testing, data migration, cutover and hypercare with the business functions.
Integration (where in scope)
- Lead post-merger integration workstreams: organisation, systems, processes, policies and pay harmonisation, with HR and legal.
- Track synergy realisation and report it.
Change management
- Lead communication, training and adoption for a Japanese workforce, in Japanese.
- Build the operating model that runs after go-live and hand it over.
Business operations (where combined)
- Run the operations function alongside the programme where the role carries both, with the KPIs that go with it.
Candidate profile
Must have
- Ten or more years in programme management or transformation with at least five leading large programmes in Japan for a foreign-capital company or its clients.
- End-to-end delivery of at least one ERP, CRM or HR-system deployment in Japan, or one integration of a Japanese business.
- Vendor and budget management at the scale of the programme.
- Change management for a Japanese workforce with evidence of adoption.
Preferred
- Both consulting and operating experience.
- Finance, supply-chain or HR process knowledge matching the programme.
- Data and reporting competence, including business-intelligence tools.
Language
- Japanese at native level for the workforce, vendors and statutory requirements.
- English at business level for the regional and global programme office and the global vendor.
Decide before you post
- Which programme, what stage, and the end date.
- Whether the role continues after go-live, and in what seat. Candidates will not join a two-year programme with no landing.
- Budget, team and the vendor set already contracted.
- Steering-committee composition and who decides when Japan and global disagree.
- Whether the role also runs an operations function day to day.
How hard is this hire
Moderate to hard. Bilingual programme leaders with Japan-specific delivery experience are in demand from every subsidiary rolling out a global system, and consultancies pay them well. Expect three to five months. Searches fail when the end date is clear and the next seat is not.
Interview questions that separate candidates
- Walk me through a Japan go-live you led. What Japan-specific requirement nearly got missed?
- Tell me about a vendor you had to change or renegotiate mid-programme.
- How did you handle a case where global scope and Japanese statutory requirements conflicted?
- Describe the adoption measures from your last programme, six months after go-live.
- What happened to the acquired company's top ten people in the integration you led?
