Director, Japan Business Development and Responsible Director

About Mesh At Mesh, our mission is to enable consumers to pay and be paid with any asset. Today, trillions of dollars in tokenized assets exist but remain largely unusable for everyday commerce. Mesh is bridging this gap by making crypto payments reliable, useful, and ubiquitous. We combine a powerful orchestration engine with a seamless consumer app to unlock liquidity for the world. Backed by leading investors like SBI, Money Forward, Paradigm, Dragonfly, Galaxy, and PayPal Ventures, we are building the infrastructure for the next era of the global economy. Join us! Overview Mesh is building out its presence in Japan, and we're looking for someone to lead that build from the ground up. This is a dual mandate. Half of the job is commercial: you own Mesh's growth in one of the most important and complex markets in APAC, building relationships with exchanges, PSPs, banks and fintechs. The other half is governance: you'll serve as a director of Mesh's Japan entity, holding statutory responsibility for local representation and board-level accountability. You'll operate with real autonomy from day one. This is not a role where you wait for a playbook. You're building the playbook, the pipeline and the local presence at the same time. What You'll Do • Own Mesh's commercial pipeline in Japan across exchanges, PSPs, banks and fintechs, from first conversation to signed contract • Build and manage relationships with the key players in Japan's crypto and payments ecosystem • Act as Mesh's primary representative in market, to partners, prospective clients and regulators • Serve as a director of Mesh's Japan entity, with statutory responsibility for local governance and board reporting • Work closely with Mesh's global business development, legal and compliance teams to keep local activity aligned with company strategy • Report regularly to senior leadership on pipeline, market development and commercial progress • Partner with Mesh's Compliance Officer and outside counsel to navigate Japan's regulatory environment as the business scales • Recruit and manage a small local team as the Japan operation grows Who You Are • 10+ years in payments, fintech or financial services, with meaningful time in crypto or digital assets • Experience serving as a company director in Japan, or strong working familiarity with Japanese corporate governance and board obligations • A real network across Japan's exchange, PSP and financial services landscape, built over years, not weeks • Business-level fluency in both Japanese and English (a native Japanese speaker is preferred, given the nuances of business communication and the complexity of local regulatory contexts) • A track record of closing complex, multi-stakeholder commercial deals • Comfort operating with significant autonomy in a fast-moving, early-stage environment • Prior engagement with Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) • Based in Tokyo, or able to relocate Nice to Have • Existing relationships with major Japan exchanges or fintech platforms • Experience standing up or scaling a regional operation for a global company The estimated base salary for this position is ¥23,973,000 to ¥45,000,000. The compensation range provided may span multiple career levels and will be narrowed during the interview process based on factors including a candidate's experience, skills, qualifications, and geographic location. The base salary range listed excludes commission (if applicable), equity, and benefits. The pay range represents the minimum and maximum target for new-hire compensation. Actual compensation may vary and may be higher or lower depending on individual circumstances. Why You’ll Love It Here At Mesh, you're not stepping into a typical role—you're joining a rocket ship in m