Rakuten reviews

-A sinking ship and declining business -Mostly just copying (with a long delay) other companies, and not innovating itself -Utilising the worse of both worlds: the east and the west. Trying to be so global company with a western mindset but mostly still a Japanese company on a daily basis -The core principles and values of the Group are not followed on a daily basis -Most important KPI: money -Extremely slow in advancing and improving services with many layers of approvals -Very risk-averse -Unbelievably low salary vs competitors and thus cannot attract real talent. -The Group is mostly run by 1 man who is feared by everybody -Often times, the message/vision doesn’t get through to middle layers of managers or the latter is just so worried with protecting the status quo. -A hierarchical environment where people in upper levels practice subtle arrogance and disbelief towards whatever people say in lower levels -People are given responsibilities but not freedom to make decisions -Many unwritten local culture business rules and people get promoted mostly based on seniority of how long staying with the company -Managers have no idea how to take care of people and solve team issues. -Almost impossible to change departments as majority of positions need Japanese skill and mostly consist of Japanese people -Too many layers of people -Low budgets and small inexperienced teams, even for important projects -People constantly make sarcastic jokes about the company -Tons of people in many meetings to make simple decisions -The Group has a lot of services, and thus occasionally has issues with focus and priorities -About 11-14 annual paid holidays -Has been historically referred to as a "black company" You have been warned… Go work elsewhere. If you put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig.

Rakuten is truely infested with staggeringly bad management. Its suffered from all the true talent leaving, whilst the un-educated or interns from 10 years bad are now left to run the ship. Rakuten runs a very good marketing strategy, and likes to sell a very different impression than reality itself. Its hugely successful at that. However, working on the inside, its a very bad place to be if you want to further your career or actually deliver something. Japanese can be very stubborn, and simple things take literally years to be agreed upon, and in the tech industry it will destroy your career. This isn't a place for foreigners to thrive, so be warned. Also, i would add, that the office itself is WAY too over-crowded - which is really to do with the massive amounts of hiring they do to keep the backward paper/manual/excel processes alive. The CEO is very active in talking to employees every week at 8am in the mandatory meeting ( which impacts negatively on your reviews should you not attend ) - Hes often a key-note speaker on events and topics which really he knows very little about. Its quite amusing in that respect. Its a lot of hype and its a matter of time before the whole machine is exposed. Unless you are just after a visa for residence in japan, I would stay well clear. Don't say you weren't warned its NOT a tech-company.