Accounting & Consolidation Lead - Japanese Speaker

They make sure the Japan business’s accounting is correct, compliant, and completed on time. They oversee areas like month-end closing, financial reporting, tax/intercompany, inventory/assets and treasury, while working with the global shared-services team to fix issues and improve/automate processes.

Our requirements

• 8–10 years’ accounting/A2R experience, ideally in a large international company or GBS/shared-services environment.
• Strong experience with month-end closing and financial reporting.
• Solid knowledge of IFRS + Japanese/local GAAP. (Japanese Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.)
• Hands-on knowledge of SAP FICO.
• Experience across asset & inventory accounting, tax/intercompany, treasury and GL/closing.
• Strong compliance, audit and SOX/internal controls experience.
• Fluent English — mandatory.
• Japanese language skills — strongly preferred, particularly for local stakeholders and statutory requirements.
• Finance/Accounting degree; CPA/ACCA or equivalent is a plus.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Able to work independently, take ownership and lead/coordinate teams.
• Experience driving process improvement, simplification and automation.
• Comfortable working with global/remote teams and shared-service organizations.

Key Hiring Priorities

• Strong accounting/A2R experience is the top priority, particularly a well-rounded accounting background beyond AP/AR or a single accounting stream.
• Senior stakeholder management is critical, especially the ability to work effectively with demanding Japanese stakeholders.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to adapt to the Japanese communication style are important.
• Japanese proficiency is required at a fluent/business level, including speaking and reading, with the ability to communicate independently.

Japan Experience

• Prior Japan market experience is not mandatory.
• Open to candidates with strong accounting/A2R backgrounds even without Japan experience.
• Pharma or FMCG/consumer experience is not required.

Technical / Process Requirements

• SAP FICO is a must-have.
• The environment is complex, with legacy ERP systems, manual reporting and processes that require significant navigation.
• APOC experience is not required, but candidates need to be comfortable working in complex systems and processes.

Key Challenges

• Simplifying and navigating complex accounting processes and systems.
• Managing a high volume of manual reporting.
• Building strong relationships with demanding local Japanese stakeholders.
• Working effectively across the Japan and Malaysia hub teams.

What Success Looks Like

• Become the main accounting SPOC for Japan stakeholders.
• Be able to independently handle around 80% of accounting-related queries.
• Build strong credibility and trust with the Japan team.
• Receive positive feedback from local stakeholders, particularly around communication, responsiveness and quality of support.
• Demonstrate strong ownership and autonomy rather than requiring constant direction.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• Strong A2R/accounting foundation with broad accounting knowledge.
• Big Four profiles could be a good fit, particularly candidates who are comfortable challenging the status quo.
• Agile, responsive and autonomous.
• Strong ownership and a challenger mindset.
• Able to navigate organisational complexity and work across both local and hub teams.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, particularly with Japanese stakeholders.
• Not necessarily someone focused on highly technical areas such as M&A; the priority is strong accounting partnering, ownership and stakeholder management.