Legal and Compliance Specialist - Rakuten Travel Xchange Business Office, Travel & Mobility Business(C&M)

Job Description: Department Overview Rakuten Travel’s global business is expanding travel-related services for overseas markets, partners, and customers. Rakuten Travel Xchange Business Office and Global Travel Management Department work with business, marketing, product, customer support, administrative teams, and external experts to support sustainable global business growth through contracts, terms and conditions, advertising and promotion reviews, privacy and data matters, multi-jurisdiction regulatory support, and legal operations. This position contributes to building a safe, compliant, and practical operating foundation that supports business growth. Position: Why We Hire As Rakuten Travel expands its global business, Legal & Compliance Group must strengthen its day-to-day operational capability and build a sustainable legal operations foundation. We are seeking a junior specialist who can proactively learn legal and compliance topics, support business teams, and improve how legal and compliance work is handled, including intake management, research, contract and terms support, campaign checks, and knowledge management. This role is suitable for a candidate who wants to grow as a global legal and compliance professional while developing strong business understanding and practical operational skills. - You can help design and build the legal and compliance foundation for a growing global business from an early expansion phase. - You will cover a broad range of topics, including travel/OTA regulations, consumer protection, advertising and direct marketing, privacy and data protection, platform terms, booking/cancellation terms, promotions, points/coupons/campaigns, SNS marketing, and cross-border operations. - You will work close to the business and gain practical experience balancing risk control with the speed required for global business expansion. - As a future manager candidate, you can contribute to member development, prioritization, process improvement, and the advancement of Legal Operations. Position Details The Legal and Compliance Specialist (Junior Member) will support daily legal and compliance operations for Rakuten Travel’s global business. Reporting to the Legal and Compliance Manager or Manager Candidate, you will assist with legal research, compliance checks, contract support, campaign reviews, documentation, stakeholder coordination, and legal operations improvement. You are not expected to be a finished legal expert from day one. However, you are expected to proactively learn, ask the right questions, organize information clearly, and convert legal and compliance guidance into practical tools such as checklists, templates, playbooks, trackers, and knowledge bases. Main Responsibilities - Support the Legal and Compliance Manager / Manager Candidate in daily legal and compliance operations for the global business. - Conduct initial legal and regulatory research for global markets under supervision, including travel/OTA regulations, advertising and direct marketing, consumer protection, privacy and data protection, campaign regulations, points/coupons, and SNS marketing. - Triage legal and compliance requests, gather facts from business teams, clarify issues, manage task status, and maintain matter trackers. - Prepare first drafts or initial reviews of NDAs, basic contracts, terms and conditions, policies, user communications, campaign checklists, FAQs, and internal guidance under supervision. - Assist with compliance checks for marketing campaigns, promotions, newsletters, push notifications, SNS initiatives, landing pages, user-facing displays, and business operations. - Maintain and improve request forms, review workflows, templates, playbooks, document repositories, external counsel records, and knowledge management materials. - Coordinate with external counsel and internal stakeholders by preparing questions, organizing materials, summarizing advice, and tracking follow-up actions. - Assist with compliance training, awareness materials, evidence management, audit preparation, and internal reporting. - Monitor legal and regulatory updates relevant to global travel and digital platform businesses and summarize key implications for the team. - Support issue escalation, incident fact gathering, remediation tracking, and process improvement activities. Example Projects - Create legal and display checklists for multi-market marketing campaigns. - Prepare contract and terms review materials for new partners or services. - Draft regulatory update memos on consumer protection, advertising, and privacy matters. - Improve intake forms, matter trackers, and knowledge bases. Key Stakeholders - Global business teams, marketing, product, customer support, administrative teams, external counsel, and legal/compliance stakeholders. Work Environment The role reports to the Legal and Compliance Manager or Manager Candidate and collaborates regularly with teams involved in the global business. As a junior member, you will handle research, documentation, status management, knowledge organization, and initial handling of standardized reviews under manager supervision. Organization - Assignment: Rakuten Travel Xchange Business Office / Global Travel Management Department. - Reporting line: Legal and Compliance Manager / Manager Candidate. - Key collaboration partners: global business teams, marketing, product, customer support, administrative teams, external counsel, and related legal/compliance stakeholders. - 3 members including manager. - Experience in technology, e-commerce/platform businesses, travel/hospitality, or global business environments is also relevant. Example Career Paths (to be confirmed) - Join as a junior member, deepen legal and compliance expertise, and expand the scope of responsibility as a specialist. - Step up into a role leading legal operations, knowledge management, and process improvement. - Grow into a manager candidate or broaden the career path into business support for global operations. Mandatory Qualifications: - Approximately 1~3 years of experience in legal, compliance, legal operations, contract administration, business operations, project management, consulting, professional services, or another relevant role. New graduates or second-career candidates with strong legal/compliance learning motivation may also be considered. - Strong interest in legal and compliance fields and willingness to proactively learn areas such as advertising regulation, consumer protection, privacy, travel/OTA regulations, contracts, and legal operations. - Business-level English or higher, including the ability to read, write, and summarize legal/business information in English. - Strong documentation, organization, research, communication, and follow-up skills. - Attention to detail, sense of ownership, integrity, and ability to handle confidential information appropriately. - Ability to work with stakeholders from different countries, cultures, and business functions. Desired Qualifications: - BA/MA in Law, JD, LLM, paralegal training, compliance certification, privacy certification, or equivalent learning experience. - Experience or internship in a legal department, compliance team, law firm, consulting firm, technology company, e-commerce/platform business, travel/hospitality business, or global business environment. - Basic experience with contract review, legal research, regulatory research, advertising review, privacy/data handling, or business process documentation. - Interest in legal operations tools and processes such as intake management, contract lifecycle management, matter tracking, knowledge management, workflow automation, dashboards, or AI-assisted legal work. - Japanese business or advanced level, especially the ability to read Japanese business/legal documents, is a plus. - Experience using collaboration and documentation tools such as Microsoft Office, SharePoint, Teams, Jira, Confluence, Notion, or similar tools. Other Information: Additional information on Location Rakuten Crimson House 1-14-1 Tamagawa, Setagaya, Tokyo Additional information on English Qualification TOEIC Score exceeding 800 (or similar level of English ability) or a University Degree earned in an English-speaking country. Proof of qualifications will be required by the time of the job offer. If no evidence is available to prove the qualifications denoted above, taking an IP test, organized by Rakuten, during selection process is required. For this role, business-level or above English is expected, and fluent English is preferred for global stakeholder management and external counsel coordination. Advanced or business-level Japanese is preferred for communication with Japan-based stakeholders and understanding internal documents. Language Levels - English: Business level or above. - Japanese: business level or above. Rakuten Group, Inc. Homepage Link - Benefits: - Recruitment Information: * Employment type is detailed - Rakuten Culture: #corporate #legal #IP #audit #commerce #RakutenTravel