Established in 1996 in Amsterdam, Booking.com has grown from a small Dutch start-up to the third largest e-commerce company in the world. Booking.com is the largest business within Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) and accounts for the vast majority of Booking Holdings’ total revenue. Booking Holdings is a leading Fortune 500 e-commerce conglomerate with a market cap of approximately $80 billion.

With a mission to make it easier for everyone to experience the world, Booking.com invests in digital technology that helps take the friction out of travel. Booking.com connects travellers with the world’s largest selection of incredible places to stay, including everything from apartments, vacation homes, and family-run B&Bs to 5-star luxury resorts and even tree houses. The Booking.com website and mobile apps are available in over 40 languages, offer more than +28 million total reported listings, and cover +140K destinations in +200 countries worldwide.

Booking.com, the world’s leading accommodation website, is looking for a Public Affairs Manager for Japan based in Tokyo. The Public Affairs Manager will represent the interests of Booking.com before government, political and regulatory audiences and other relevant senior level officials within Japan and the wider North Asia region. Successful candidate will work closely with other parts of Legal & Public Affairs department, as well as with business units, corporate units and corporate functions, the Accommodations BU, and aligns with the business priorities of our local and regional partner services offices.

This role contributes to the strategic positioning and reputation of the company among external stakeholders.

Key responsibilities:

• Help develop and implement PA strategy to support business priorities and Booking.com’s corporate profile in Japan and to a lesser priority, other markets in North Asia
• Liaise with elected members and government officials on business related public policy issues
• Facilitate high level meetings with key stakeholders, including legislative bodies regulatory bodies, industry association and alliance partners to promote and advocate forthe company’s PA priorities
• Support the management of our trade association memberships and represent the company
• Ensure continuous monitoring and evaluation of political stakeholder activity and regulatory developments
• Work closely with the broader PA team to align messaging and provide colleagues with a through understanding of PA priorities
• Articulate Booking.com positions in briefing papers, consultation responses, internal and external meetings

Public Affairs Manager will hold following qualification and experience:

• Bachelor's Degree or higher
• 5-8 years of relevant experience in Japan and North Asia, ideally in a government institution in combination with in-house or consultancy experience in the area of public affairs
• Demonstrable knowledge of and experience in influencing policy-making.
• Good understanding of policy and legal challenges facing the tech industry and affinity with the tourism and travel industry in Japan and North Asia would be a plus
• Excellent oral communications skills and ability to distill complex information into clear messages that will resonate with political and regulatory audiences, as well as into succinct updates for the business teams
• High quality written skills and practical experience in drafting materials for use by regulators, senior executives or politicians
• Experience developing creative and effective public affairs campaigns that underpin the company’s business objectives
• Outstanding organizational abilities, in particular, the capacity to manage multiple work streams at one time and the proactivity to drive work programmes forward and co-ordinate the involvement of all relevant stakeholders
• Experience working in fast-paced, multicultural environments
• Experience with managing sensitive reputational issues and/or crises
• Ability to engage directly with policy makers and to act as a spokesperson for the business
• Native Japanese and Advanced English speaker, other languages an advantage
• Self-starter that is also an excellent team player
• Strong influencing skills and ability to inspire confidence, as well as the ability to establish and maintain effective relationships at all levels
• High level of integrity with ability to develop both internal and external credibility
• Hands-on, results-focused and impactful

Why join the Legal & Public Affairs Team now?

Booking.com’s Legal & Public Affairs team is on a transformational journey at a transformational time for e-commerce and travel (think: growth, innovation, changes to how we operate); you will have an opportunity to actively shape the Department’s future. The Legal & Public Affairs team is also a critical part of the enablement of Booking.com’s strategy of the Connected Trip (a travel experience that includes not just accommodation, but also transportation, attractions, experiences, payments, flights etc).

This is a journey that requires close business and Legal & Public Affairs partnerships to redefine our business model, navigate complex regulatory environments, build new products, and negotiate increasingly elaborate commercial deals, among other important projects our teams get involved every day. To tackle this mission, it all starts with a strong team passionate about growing Booking.com in an ethical and sustainable way!

Who we are

To match our global footprint and the array of challenges we face, we are proud to highlight the diversity that exists across this group. We are a team of approximately 90 professionals - representing more than 25 nationalities - with lawyers qualified in many different countries, as well as non-lawyers with public policy, economics, compliance and risk backgrounds. Our team’s previous experience spans across a multitude of industries with team members having worked for major global companies (including Uber, American Express, Airbnb, Amazon, Google, Nokia), tech and other startups, government entities (e.g., the Dutch Competition Authority), and reputable international law firms (e.g., Hogan Lovells, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Baker Mckenzie), and Public Affairs firms (e.g., FTI Consulting, FIPRA, Brunswick).

In addition to our day-to-day work, we actively seek opportunities for our team members to engage in the wider global legal and public affairs communities through speaking engagements, training programs, and association memberships. Some of our lawyers are Board members of Consumer Law associations, Competition Law associations, Privacy associations, etc. We also believe in actively engaging with stakeholders to share our insights on policies affecting the travel experience and how travel tech innovations can fuel the digital transformation of the travel industry. For example, we recently launched Booking.com’s Public Affairs blog, where we publish our position on key policy issues (A World Worth Experiencing).

As a team, we believe in:

• Integrating with the Business and Legal having a “seat at the table”: we are decision makers that can have a real impact on Booking.com’s future
• Booking’s mission of making it easier for everyone to experience the world. Travel helps people become more open minded, curious and flexible
• Allowing members of our teams to experience different areas or, if they want to be specialists, give them the tools to become more effective in their jobs
• Providing holistic legal and public affairs advice; our team should not work in silos
• Always looking for better ways of doing things, improving our Legal Operations function, innovating and exchanging best practices
• Accepting that it's OK to make mistakes as long as we learn from them
• Having a sense of humour and having fun working together; we are a team that likes to collaborate and share in joys and challenges together!

Why join the Legal & Public Affairs Team now?

Booking.com’s Legal & Public Affairs team is on a transformational journey at a transformational time for e-commerce and travel (think: growth, innovation, changes to how we operate); you will have an opportunity to actively shape the Department’s future. The Legal & Public Affairs team is also a critical part of the enablement of Booking.com’s strategy of the Connected Trip (a travel experience that includes not just accommodation, but also transportation, attractions, experiences, payments, flights etc).

This is a journey that requires close business and Legal & Public Affairs partnerships to redefine our business model, navigate complex regulatory environments, build new products, and negotiate increasingly elaborate commercial deals, among other important projects our teams get involved every day. To tackle this mission, it all starts with a strong team passionate about growing Booking.com in an ethical and sustainable way!

Who we are

To match our global footprint and the array of challenges we face, we are proud to highlight the diversity that exists across this group. We are a team of approximately 160 professionals - representing more than 34 nationalities - with lawyers qualified in many different countries, as well as non-lawyers with public policy, economics, compliance and risk backgrounds. Our team’s previous experience spans across a multitude of industries with team members having worked for major global companies (including Uber, American Express, Airbnb, Amazon, Google, Nokia), tech and other startups, government entities (e.g., the Dutch Competition Authority), and reputable international law firms (e.g., Hogan Lovells, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Baker Mckenzie), and Public Affairs firms (e.g., FTI Consulting, FIPRA, Brunswick).

In addition to our day-to-day work, we actively seek opportunities for our team members to engage in the wider global legal and public affairs communities through speaking engagements, training programs, and association memberships. Some of our lawyers are Board members of Consumer Law associations, Competition Law associations, Privacy associations, etc. We also believe in actively engaging with stakeholders to share our insights on policies affecting the travel experience and how travel tech innovations can fuel the digital transformation of the travel industry. For example, we recently launched Booking.com’s Public Affairs blog, where we publish our position on key policy issues (A World Worth Experiencing).

As a team, we believe in:

Integrating with the Business and Legal having a “seat at the table”: we are decision makers that can have a real impact on Booking.com’s future

Booking’s mission of making it easier for everyone to experience the world. Travel helps people become more open minded, curious and flexible

Allowing members of our teams to experience different areas or, if they want to be specialists, give them the tools to become more effective in their jobs

Providing holistic legal and public affairs advice; our team should not work in silos

Always looking for better ways of doing things, improving our Legal Operations function, innovating and exchanging best practices

Accepting that it's OK to make mistakes as long as we learn from them

Having a sense of humour and having fun working together; we are a team that likes to collaborate and share in joys and challenges together!