Oku Japan is a team of people who love Japan, and who love working in the travel industry, using their enthusiasm for Japan in their daily job. We are a small but expanding company, always happy to hear from those who would like to share in our passion and join our team. We are an equal opportunities employer and also periodically offer internships.
Our main office is in Kyoto, so if you are considering a career in the travel industry, and have experience of living, working or travelling in Japan, do get in touch.
Destination Specialist
Thanks to the return of travel, we have jobs available for the role of Destination Specialist. Please contact us at jobs@okujapan.com with your resume to apply.
Job responsibilities of Destination Specialists include but are not limited to the following:
• Learning our trip destinations and individual itineraries in detail and becoming the point person for a particular destination or tour type
• Taking calls and replying to emails from prospective travellers and travel advisors, often in rapid succession, throughout the day
• Building rapport and understanding the needs of your travellers and travel advisors
• Following up on leads to help determine the best trip fit for our travellers and the clients of our partner travel advisors and closing those sales
• Preparing quotes and customizing them to ensure they meet the needs of your customers.
• Booking and entering reservations and handling special requests and additional services
• Supporting your customers with all pre, during and post trip questions, amendments and issues.
• Connecting with your customers pre and post trip to ensure all goes to plan and listening to their feedback to ensure we continually improve our trips.
• Building relationships with our customers that ensure they return again and again and tell their friends about their great experiences with us.
• Ensuring that every detail of your traveller’s trip is perfectly organized and documented, including the administrative tasks this involves.
• Do your utmost to ensure you are providing our travellers have a positive experience, from start to finish from their first enquiry to their post trip survey
• Developing and writing custom itineraries and proposals
• Communicating closely with our marketing and operations teams and other stakeholders to efficiently drive your book of business while ensuring the delivery of high-end service
• Contributing to marketing initiatives including writing blog posts, contributing to documentation
• Working and fully available 9-6 Monday – Friday. Additional hours may be necessary to achieve your goals and complete your work.
• Occasionally, weekend work may be required
• Occasionally, domestic or international travel may be required
Requested skills
• Japan travel experience, preferably to diverse nature destinations
• You have a passion for active and adventure travel with experience and knowledge of the destinations and activities we offer.
• Experience in sales or customer facing roles where you have demonstrated your ability to understand customer needs, propose solutions, overcome objections and close sales.
• Outstanding customer service and problem-solving skills.
• An excellent eye for detail and administrative skills.
• Able to multitask, prioritize and establish deadlines to ensure competing objectives are met.
• Interpersonal and team skills which enable you to build great relationships internally and externally.
• Highly confident, competent and articulate individual who can communicate professionally across all levels.
• Able to work under pressure, motivated to achieve targets and demonstrate a positive attitude, and who follow through.
• Candidates looking to grow and develop a career with us over the medium to long term
• Learning orientated
• Resilient and flexible
• People who care
• Good listeners
• A hands-on individual willing to go the extra mile for customers, colleagues and the business.
• Proficient with Microsoft Office, and online tools such as Gmail, Googledocs, and Dropbox
• Do you have additional skills you can bring to the table? Tell us about them!
• We strongly encourage fluent Spanish and Italian speakers to apply
• Must be fluent in English
• Must have permission to work in Japan
*Please note we are not always able to reply to unsuccessful candidates on initial application
Tour Guide
We are looking for a guide who is experienced and talented at leading multi-day tours with guiding throughout. Please contact us at info@okujapan.com with your resume to apply with the following points in mind:
• Must be a guide licensed by the Japan Tourism Agency
• Experience as a trekking guide a plus and a willingness to lead trekking tours welcome
• In good physical health and physically active
• Team player and able to work within tour budgets
• Able to speak business level English or higher
• Experience working with North American travelers
• Skilled storyteller with an ability to explain Japanese culture, traditions, and history
• Leave our travelers with fantastic memories of their time in Japan
