View Vacancy - JPN (Tokyo) - Internship Programme (Department for International Trade, Scottish Development International)

Main purpose of job:

The British Embassy Tokyo promotes work experience and internship opportunities with the aim of building strong links between the UK and Japan. We encourage talented undergraduates, recent graduates and other school and college students to get a taste of embassy work, which we hope will encourage people to consider a future career linked to the UK-Japan relationship. 

These internship opportunities would particularly suit someone with strong links to either the UK or to Japan and is considering pursuing a career in international relations, trade and investment, or similar field in the future.

Roles and responsibilities / what will the jobholder be expected to achieve?:

1. DIT Trade Team Project Assistant – Space and Financial Services

2. DIT Trade Team Project Assistant - Tech and Defence

3. DIT Investment Team – Innovation project support intern

4. DIT Investment team – Technology and Automotive project support intern

5. SDI Intern - Social Media Research Intern

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1. DIT Trade Team Project Assistant – Space and Financial Services

Responsibilities

The Department for International Trade (DIT) is the UK Government Department that helps UK companies export around the world. Within the department the Space Team and Financial Services Team are looking for a Project Assistant to help us run small and large scale promotional events and research projects.

In this role you will have the chance to:

• Assist the Space Team to organise a Space Trade Mission to Japan by UK companies, supporting on planning, logistics and the running of the mission.
• Assist in the set-up and running of a number of company-led events and seminars which will be held at the Embassy
• Support the Financial Services team to plan for and run an Asset Management trade mission to Japan, which will include an event to promote the UK’s Global Investment Futures campaign.
• Undertake research in English and Japanese on a variety of sectors and topics related to market opportunities for UK companies.
• Produce short reports based on your research findings that can be hosted on our partner platform www.exporttojapan.co.uk and can be used by trade sector teams.
• Liaise with other parts of the Embassy and with outside organisations on trade related work and projects
• Support the marketing of the trade team's activities by linking up with the Embassy marketing team to produce the bi-monthly newsletter and draft social media posts.
• Provide additional support to the Operations Team for annual cross-DIT events

Requirements

• English and Japanese speaker with a high-level of written and spoken abilities in both language.
• Ideally available to come in to the office 3-4 days a week and can commit to the full term of the internship.
• Flexible, dependable, enthusiastic and customer focused person that enjoys taking on challenging responsibilities and working as part of a team.
• IT skills including ability to use Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook.

2.  DIT Trade Team Project Assistant - Tech and Defence

Responsibilities

 The Department for International Trade (DIT) is the UK Government Department that helps UK companies export around the world, and assists foreign companies in setting up their operations in the UK. Within the department the Tech Trade Team and the Defence Team are looking for a Project Assistant to help run our attendance at large scale promotional events including CEATEC, Japan’s largest technology show.

In this role, you will have the chance to contribute to our operations with the following tasks:

• Assisting UK Government participation in CEATEC in October, which will be used to promote UK start-ups’ and scale-ups’ competitiveness in advanced technologies such as CPS/IoT, robotics and AI.
• Assisting UK Government participation in DSEI Japan Trade Show in March 2023, which will promote UK’s competitiveness in defence.
• Assisting with Income Generating events in Q4 by supporting UK companies that will use our facilities to run events.
• Undertaking research in English and Japanese in the areas of start-ups eco-system and/or technologies landscape in Japan/UK
• Producing short reports on your research findings in English
• Liaising with other parts of the Embassy and with outside organisations to support wider Government objectives.
• In addition to supporting Tech Trade, Defence & Cyber teams, providing ad-hoc support to other DIT Embassy teams
• Support marketing of the trade team's activities by linking up with the Embassy marketing team to produce the bi-monthly newsletter and draft social media posts.

Requirements

• English and Japanese speaker with a high-level of written and spoken abilities in both language.
• Ideally available to come in to the office 3-4 days a week and can commit to the full term of the internship.
• Flexible, dependable, enthusiastic and customer focused person that enjoys taking on challenging responsibilities and working as part of a team.
• IT skills including ability to use Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook.

3.  DIT Investment Team – Innovation Project Support Intern

Responsibilities

At the British Embassy Tokyo, the Department for International Trade (DIT)’s responsibilities are to support international businesses to export overseas and to expand in the UK, and to optimize the trading environment.

This role would sit within the Investment Team, which promotes Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from Japan to the UK, encouraging Japanese companies to establish manufacturing facilities, research centres and sales offices in the UK, benefitting the UK economy. There are approximately 1000 Japanese companies with operations in the UK – for example, Nissan, Hitachi and Panasonic.

The successful candidate will support investment work on two key priorities for DIT Japan: Quantum Technologies and Clean Energy. Specific tasks will include:

• Quantum Technology: logistical support for a delegation of Japanese companies to visit the National Quantum Technologies Showcase in the UK, plus associated follow-up (Q3)
• Energy and Infrastructure: logistical support for in-person visits to Japan by UK stakeholders, to promote investment into the UK clean energy sector (Q4)
• Information management: supporting improved information management across the DIT investment team, such as managing contact databases; tracking investment projects; conducting industry-specific research to inform DIT’s priorities; and supporting DIT’s marketing output via Embassy media channels
• Ad-hoc support: support for the wider investment team on emerging ad-hoc priorities

Requirements

• Business level English and Japanese (spoken and written)
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail
• Interest in working in the public sector and for the UK government
• Availability to work 3 days per week over the specified period (flexible)

4. DIT Investment team – Technology and Automotive Project Support Intern

Responsibilities

Within the British Embassy Tokyo, the Department for International Trade (DIT)’s responsibilities are to support international businesses to export overseas and to expand in the UK, and to optimize the trading environment. 

This role would sit within the Investment Team, which promotes Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from Japan to the UK, encouraging Japanese companies to establish manufacturing facilities, research 

centres and sales offices in the UK, benefitting the UK economy. There are approximately 1000 Japanese companies with operations in the UK – for example, Nissan, Hitachi and Panasonic.

The successful candidate will work as part of the Technology team, supporting investment from Japanese businesses which are playing a major role in shaping how our society works in the future. The team is dynamic, fast-paced, and welcomes new ideas, fresh approaches, and team players.

Specifically, the successful candidate will work on:

• Supporting the generation of new investment in the area of technology for automotive applications such as Zero Emissions Vehicles and Connected and Autonomous Mobility. This will involve research into high potential opportunities using sources in English and Japanese, creating presentation materials from this research, and logistical support for an event we plan to hold in the autumn with leading businesses in the field.
• Supporting the automotive team to organise a visit to Japan by specialists in the area of Chemicals. Chemicals will be of critical importance to technologies such as battery manufacturing for Zero Emissions Vehicles.
• Information management: supporting improved information management across the DIT investment team, such as managing  contact databases; tracking investment projects; conducting industry-specific research to inform DIT’s priorities; and supporting DIT’s marketing output via Embassy media channels
• Ad-hoc support: support for the wider investment team on emerging ad-hoc priorities

Requirements:

• Business level English and Japanese (spoken and written)
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail
• Responsive and can-do attitude
• Interest in technology is a plus
• Experience in international environment is a plus

5. SDI Intern - Social Media Research Intern

Responsibilities

Scottish Development International (SDI) is the Scottish Government’s international trade and inward investment agency. SDI Japan is focused on facilitating trade and investment between Scotland and Japan.

This role would suit someone with strong links to the UK and Japan who has an interest in social media. 

In this role you will have a chance to build up your experience through a short-term project, analysing SDI social media and market trends, creating social media strategies, resulting in the creation of guidelines and key recommendations based around your research. This will help determine SDI’s future online activities, and the best approach for the team to take, working either with an agency or individually to promote Scotland. 

In this role you will have the chance to :

• Conduct research analysing SDI Japan’s various social media accounts, as well as the social media landscape in Japan
• Revive and maintain SDI’s twitter account by drafting engaging and dynamic content supporting SDI’s objectives to increase the number of followers, and to engage the audience 
• You will create monthly social media reports analysing the month’s activities to determine SDI’s social media strategy . 
• Create a terms of use document and social media guidelines for SDI based on learnings from research
• Incorporate lessons learnt to propose an efficient management of SDI’s social media accounts 
• Other tasks would involve providing support to the team on the delivery of adhoc projects or events

Requirements

• Fluency in Japanese and business level English with a high-level of written and spoken abilities in both languages
• Ideally available to come to the office 3-4 days a week and can commit to the full term of the internship
• Flexible, dependable, enthusiastic and customer focused person that enjoys taking on challenging responsibilities and working as part of a team.
• Display understanding of and capabilities on a variety of social media platforms (primarily Twitter), and an awareness of the Japanese social media landscape.
• IT skills including ability to use Microsoft word, excel, PowerPoint and outlook, as well as a willingness to learn and develop skills on other platforms.