Category Executive

Why BAT Japan
We're a smaller marketing organisation than the houses most of our people come from — you'll own more, earlier, with a smaller team behind you.

• A market-leading annual performance bonus (subject to eligibility)

• Health cover, transport support and a flexible holiday plan with additional incentives

• English and Japanese language training, delivered on company time

• A published capability framework for every role and grade — so you know precisely what the next grade requires, not just that progression exists — plus online learning and structured leadership programmes

• Global Top Employer for the ninth consecutive year — certified across five regions and a record 44 countries

Tokyo, Japan · Full-time · Junior Executive

Brand marketing on global brands, across three markets, at an age when most people are still building slides for someone else.

BAT is a global multi-category consumer goods business. Our purpose is to create A Better Tomorrow™, with a vision to build a smokeless world — as at 31 December 2025, 34.1m consumers used our Smokeless Products, generating 18.2% of Group revenue. Alongside that shift, our established brands still fund the transformation and still need to be built properly. This role sits in the North Asia marketing team covering Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

The role
You help build and run brand strategy across the region: what the brand stands for, who it's for, what the product claims are, how it's packaged and priced, and how it shows up in market. You'll work with agencies, insights teams and the people executing in each market — and you'll be expected to have a point of view backed by evidence, not just a well-formatted deck.

What you'll own

• Your part of the brand strategy — positioning, audience, product, pack, price and communications — on a one-to-four-year horizon

• Adapting global brand direction for Japan, Korea and Taiwan so it stays consistent but actually lands with local consumers

• The evidence base: consumer insight, competitor moves, category trends, and the recommendation that follows from them

• Briefing and steering creative, media and design agencies — including telling them when the work isn't good enough

• Getting trademarks, claims and campaign elements approved on time, working with Legal, R&D and Insights

• Specific brand projects end to end — launches, new product campaigns, sustainability initiatives — including the honest review of what worked afterwards

• Tracking your activity against budget and flagging early when the outlook changes

What you'll bring

• Experience across the full marketing mix — not only communications, and not only execution

• Genuine consumer intimacy: you can explain why people in this market behave the way they do, and back it up

• Comfort with pricing, profitability and campaign planning

• Useful, not essential: brand building in a new or disrupted category

Qualifications

• 3–5 years in brand marketing at an international consumer goods company, or a fast-moving consumer-facing business

• A university degree

• Native-level Japanese and business English. Korean is a bonus, not a requirement