Working in Tokyo: Yuki shares how he’s re-imagining advertising at Amazon Ads

Hi. I’m in Tokyo, and this is my fourth year with Amazon.

Amazon is the second company I’ve worked for. I started my career in the telecom business, selling products to corporate customers and introducing them to new technologies.

I was always interested in global tech companies like Amazon. I lived in Texas for five years when I was younger and went to high school in Australia, so I wanted to use English in my career. At my previous company, I didn’t get that chance.

A close friend of mine was already at Amazon and kept telling me how great the culture was—great people, multiple businesses to explore, great customer insights, and the opportunity to work with colleagues globally. That sounded exciting, so I started looking for a role. I’d done a little advertising work in my telecom role, so Ads felt like a good fit.

It was definitely a learning curve! I didn’t have the advertising expertise or vocabulary at first. Most of my colleagues came from ad agencies, so they spoke the “advertising language” fluently, and I studied a lot in the beginning. But everyone was so helpful and supportive. That made the transition much easier.

It suits my personality. Rather than pure sales, I'm more passionate about diving deep into customer problems and providing consulting solutions that support our advertisers. I like problem-solving, and account management allows me to do that.

Two things: communication and analysis. We work with tech, policy, and global teams internally, so you need to communicate clearly. Then there’s the insights that we gain. We have to look at a problem from different angles to solve our customers’ problems. That combination makes a strong Account Manager.

Amazon’s customer signals that we can use to support our clients’ campaigns. Analyzing this and offering unique insights to clients is the most fun part of my job.

That’s a big misconception. You have the opportunity to use English every day, but it depends on your role. For example, I manage global entertainment accounts, so I use English daily. But if you manage a domestic Japanese client, you may not need English at all. The point is that you can choose. If you want to use English, the opportunity is there. If not, there are still other roles that will suit you.

In Amazon interviews here in Japan, depending on the role, one or two interviewers might ask you questions in English, but your recruiting team will prepare you in advance for that and make sure you fully understand the requirements of the role.

Yes, very different. At Amazon, the relationships with managers and colleagues feel much more open. In Japanese companies, you use very polite language when speaking to your boss or someone older. Of course, there are polite words in English, but the American culture is less formal. I find it easier to communicate, easier to share ideas with colleagues at different levels, and easier to move work forward.

This is my first job in advertising, so my priority is to learn more and become a professional in this industry. I plan to stay with Ads for the next few years, but at Amazon, there are many options. You can take your career in different directions, so I might take a different role for growing my career.

I’d strongly recommend it. The pace is fast—there’s something new to learn every year, every quarter—so you’re never bored. It’s a really exciting place to be. Also, there are many talented people to collaborate with, which makes work even more enjoyable.

For Account Managers, “Dive Deep” is the most important. We have to look into details of campaigns and give clients proposals that help grow their businesses. But across Amazon, I see “Bias for Action” and “Customer Obsession” everywhere, from every colleague I work with.

To me, re-imagining advertising means always building on what’s already there—imagining something new, making it happen, and then asking, “What more can we do?” At Amazon, new products launch all the time, so we can always improve our advertisers’ experience.

For me, the most powerful part of Amazon Ads is the science behind it. We offer insights based on what customers have bought, not just what they search for. Other organizations in Japan mainly have search data, but Amazon has the reality of purchase behavior. That’s a game-changer for clients.

When I joined, I wasn’t from an advertising background, so I saw it through the eyes of a customer. I was genuinely excited about the art and science of what we do, and I think that helped me explain to clients why Amazon Ads is different. That’s how we’re re-imagining advertising: by giving customers insights that are more concrete, more powerful, and more valuable than before.