Yoshiyasu Masamura, General Manager, Amazon Incentives Division, Amazon Japan

Aiming to be the most customer-centric company on the planet

Amazon is a global IT company that operates a comprehensive online store.
In addition to Amazon gift certificates, which are widely used for purchasing products and as gifts, Amazon began offering Amazon Book Gift Certificates, a type of gift certificate, in March of this year.
We spoke with Masamura, General Manager of Amazon's Incentives Division, about the future prospects of Amazon, which continues to launch new services every day.

General Manager of Amazon Incentives Division, Amazon Japan
Yoshiyasu Masamura

After graduating from the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Waseda University, he joined Fujitsu Ltd., where he was in charge of corporate sales in the retail industry.
He joined Amazon Japan in March 2015. He served as an account manager in the Amazon Incentives division, which handles Amazon gift certificates, Amazon Prime gift codes, and Amazon gift certificates, and has been in charge of corporate incentive business since November 2019 in his current position.

Innovation born from diversity

Amazon was launched in the United States in 1995 by its founder Jeff Bezos as an online book store. It began operations in Japan in 2000, marking its 20th anniversary this year.
Since our founding, we have conducted our business based on our corporate philosophy of "becoming the company on the planet that values ​​its customers the most."
If we consider the existence of a diverse range of customers, including not only individual consumers but also businesses that sell products and book authors, our business will expand and a variety of services will be born.
We want Amazon to be a company that continues to explore on a daily basis what kind of services it should provide to customers all over the world.
Additionally, Amazon places great importance on innovation. We create innovation on behalf of our customers. This is the value we can provide to benefit our customers and help them live better lives.
Diversity among employees is crucial to generating innovation. We believe that exchanging opinions among people with diverse backgrounds leads to innovation.
We also value a working environment that provides a foundation for employees to demonstrate their diversity, such as providing an office space where they can concentrate and creating an environment that makes it easy to work from home.
When it comes to creating innovation, the first thing we do is consider the needs of our customers. We get ideas for meeting various needs by constantly being aware of customer reviews as end users and by communicating directly with corporate customers.
We also value regular communication with our overseas teams and brainstorming business ideas together.

New services tailored to your needs

Traditional Amazon Gift Certificates can be used for eligible products and services offered on Amazon.co.jp, but from March 2020, we began offering Amazon Book Gift Certificates as a type of gift certificate.
This is a gift certificate that can only be used to purchase books, magazines, etc. that fall under the "Books" category.
The reason behind offering gift certificates with different types is that there is a growing need around the world for gift certificates that are specific to a specific purpose, rather than ones that can buy anything.
We believe that this system will be able to more flexibly meet the needs of a variety of customers, not only for individual end users who wish to purchase books, but also for corporate customers who wish to use it for employee benefits and product promotions.
The reason we created book gift certificates as a type of gift certificate is that in addition to the convenience of being able to quickly search for books and magazines online by title or author name, there was a strong demand for them to be used as gifts, as they allow you to choose from a wide selection.

Amazon's Future Developments

In the future, we plan to popularize these book gift certificates throughout Japan, and as a next step, we are considering offering new types of gift certificates that meet customer needs.
To that end, in addition to the gift certificates for each category, we would like to continue to pursue the selection, prices, and convenience of products sold across Amazon.
Amazon has responded to changes in the world by meeting the needs of customers at any given time.
What Amazon needs to do now is to think about what kind of services it can provide to help customers live their lives the way they want as they adapt to new lifestyles after COVID-19.
We hope that the book vouchers will also give you the opportunity to read books while staying at home and discover a world you never knew existed.

What I hope for university students
I want everyone to value "meeting people" and "diversity." Amazon employees in Japan come from about 50 countries and regions. When working in a different country, things that are common in Japan are often not understood.
The exchange of opinions based on diverse backgrounds inspires and generates new ideas that lead to innovation.
Of course, studying is important in student life, but I also hope that you will value meeting a variety of people, being inspired, and expressing your diverse ideas.
It is also important to come across books that teach various knowledge, know-how, and ways of thinking, so I would be happy if the book vouchers could be a good opportunity for people to do so.

From the October 1, 2020 issue of the Student Newspaper (by Nao Suzuki, a fourth-year student at International Christian University)