Japan Community Manager (Gaming)
Posted 3 days ago by Soulbound
Negotiable
Undetermined
Undetermined
United Kingdom
Summary: The Japan Community Manager role at Soulbound involves building and managing a dedicated Japanese community for their MMORPG. The position requires deep knowledge of Japanese MMO culture and the ability to localize content effectively for the audience. The successful candidate will engage with Japanese content creators and gaming communities while acting as a cultural bridge between the global team and Japanese players. This role is crucial for establishing Soulbound's presence in the Japanese market.
Key Responsibilities:
- Build and manage dedicated Japanese channels on Discord, including structure, roles, bots, and moderation.
- Develop a community growth strategy targeting MMO players, guild leaders, and content creators.
- Identify and build relationships with Japanese YouTubers, streamers, and content creators.
- Engage with Japanese gaming communities on platforms like Twitter/X, Niconico, YouTube, and 5ch/game forums.
- Work with Japanese MMO guilds to bring organized groups into Soulbound.
- Localize community announcements, patch notes, and event communications for a Japanese audience.
- Run community events tailored to Japanese player culture.
- Prepare weekly reports on community sentiment, growth metrics, and cultural insights.
- Act as a cultural advisor to the wider team on Japanese-related matters.
- Coordinate with the Community Director on cross-community events and messaging.
Key Skills:
- Native-level Japanese (reading, writing, speaking).
- Fluent English (professional working proficiency minimum).
- Deep personal experience with MMOs.
- Understanding of the Japanese gaming content creator landscape.
- Experience with Japanese online communities.
- Knowledge of Japanese guild culture in MMOs.
- Self-starter with proactive promotion skills.
- Previous community management experience at a game studio (bonus).
- Existing relationships with Japanese gaming content creators (bonus).
- Experience localizing gaming content (bonus).
Salary (Rate): undetermined
City: undetermined
Country: United Kingdom
Working Arrangements: undetermined
IR35 Status: undetermined
Seniority Level: undetermined
Industry: Other
About Us
Step into the world of Soulbound, a charming pixel-art MMORPG where your adventures unfold through exploration, crafting, home-building, guild camaraderie, and fun with friends. Imagine the nostalgic social connection of classic MMOs blended with the warm embrace of modern cozy gaming, all set in a meticulously handcrafted pixel-art universe. Our passionate indie team of 20+ is gearing up for launch. We move quickly, place immense trust in our team, and value what you create far more than your resume.
The Role
We're looking for someone to build our Japanese community from the ground up. Japan has one of the deepest MMO cultures on the planet, and we want someone who lives and breathes it. You'll be responsible for establishing Soulbound's presence in the Japanese market: managing a dedicated Japanese Discord channel, building relationships with Japanese content creators and guilds, localising our community voice (not just translating, making it feel native), and becoming the bridge between our global team and Japanese speaking players.
What You'll Do
Build and manage a dedicated Japanese channels on our Discord server from scratch, including channel structure, roles, bots, and moderation
Develop a Japanese community growth strategy targeting MMO players, guild leaders, and content creators
Identify, reach out to, and build relationships with Japanese YouTubers, streamers, and content creators who cover MMOs, pixel art games, or cozy games
Engage with Japanese gaming communities on platforms like Twitter/X (JP gaming Twitter is massive), Niconico, YouTube, and 5ch/game forums
Work with Japanese MMO guilds to bring organised groups into Soulbound. Understand how JP guild culture differs from Western guild culture and leverage that
Localise community announcements, patch notes, and event communications. Not machine translation. Native-level writing that feels right to a Japanese audience
Run community events tailored to Japanese player culture (housing contests, guild showcases, seasonal events that resonate locally)
Prepare weekly reports on Japanese community sentiment, growth metrics, content creator pipeline, and cultural insights the team should know about
Act as the cultural advisor to the wider team on anything related: what resonates, what doesn't, how to avoid missteps
Coordinate with our Community Director on cross-community events and consistent messaging
Requirements
Requirements
Native-level Japanese (reading, writing, speaking). Non-negotiable. You're writing community posts, responding to players, and negotiating with creators in Japanese
Fluent English (professional working proficiency minimum). You need to communicate clearly with the UK-based team
Deep personal experience with MMOs. You've played them seriously. You understand why people stay in these games for years
Understanding of the Japanese gaming content creator landscape: who the major gaming YouTubers are, how VTubers fit in, which streamers cover MMOs vs. action games
Experience with Japanese online communities (Discord JP servers, Twitter JP gaming community, Niconico, 5ch gaming boards)
Knowledge of Japanese guild culture in MMOs (how JP FCs/LSes/guilds recruit, organise, and communicate differently from Western guilds)
Self-starter. You see an opportunity to promote Soulbound to a JP audience and you act on it before anyone asks
Bonus Points
Previous community management experience at a game studio (especially for a Western game launching in Japan)
Existing relationships with Japanese gaming content creators
Understanding of Japan's content creator agency landscape
Played FFXIV, PSO2, Dragon Quest X, or other JP-heavy MMOs extensively
Can create short-form video content in Japanese
Experience localising gaming content (not just translation, actual cultural localisation)