in Japanese follows. 英文の後に和文JDをご覧いただけます。
Outreach Specialist (Driver of Research PR & Co-innovation) - Mercari
Employment Status: Full-time
Work Hours: Flextime system (no core hours)
Office: Roppongi
For details, see the Overview of Our Positions section of our Careers site.
About Mercari Group
Circulate all forms of value to unleash the potential in all people
“What can I do to help society thrive with the finite resources we have?” The Mercari marketplace app was born in 2013 out of this thought by our founder Shintaro Yamada as he traveled the world. We believe that by circulating all forms of value, not just physical things and money, we can create opportunities for anyone to realize their dreams and contribute to society and the people around them.
Mercari aims to use technology to connect people all over the world and create a world where anyone can unleash their potential. You can learn more about our mission on the Culture page of our Careers site.
Organization/Team Mission
Team Mission and Expectations of the Role
R4D is a research and development organization established with the mission of "pioneering the path toward undiscovered value" and a focus on real-world implementation. By bridging the communities of industry, academia, and government to promote a co-innovation approach and leveraging science and technology to resolve complex social issues, R4D strives to realize Mercari's aim to circulate our limited resources and build a future where anyone can unleash their potential.
R4D conducts research on how value is created, exchanged, and circulated throughout society, starting from the C2C platform at the core of Mercari Group's business. We explore everything from advanced technologies that will redefine the future of C2C platforms to the relationship between technology, people, and society. For our main research areas, see here .
The R4D organization consists of an R&D Team composed of researchers and engineers and a Research Acceleration Team composed of specialists in research organization management, such as project management and PR, with members hailing from around the world.
In this position, you will join the Outreach Team, which drives research PR and co-innovation, and take on a wide range of tasks related to planning and promoting communications that connect R4D's research with society.
About the Outreach Specialist Position
R4D's research is aimed at realizing the society that Mercari's Group mission envisions. In addition to advanced technologies such as AI and robotics, we work to contribute to the realization of a circular society and explore how people, technology, and society relate. You will design and carry out our outreach stories, spanning research PR and co-innovation, to communicate to stakeholders including academia, industry, government, and Mercari users the future our research envisions in an easy-to-understand format and how our research expands from empathy to co-innovation.
The Outreach Team's mission is to "grow a global community that shares Mercari’s vision for society and works together to bring that vision to life." Beyond communicating our research to society, we connect industry, academia, and government and create co-innovation with new partners. With outreach-driven research promotion and communication as our strength, we create symbolic cases that let people experience the future our research envisions, leading to the development of new research areas.
Notable past initiatives:
Science Agora (2023): Report (available only in Japanese)
Establishment of the Mercari R4D Research Alliance Laboratory at Osaka University (2025): English article ; event report (available only in Japanese)
Green Friday Project 2025: planned and exhibited "Green Signal," which visualizes CO2 reduction contributions in real time: Article (available only in Japanese)
Research outreach through short videos on the "Mercari R4D Lab" channel, introducing research intended to improve society: Instagram ,…