As a pre-note the following applies to Japan (Tokyo and branch offices), but i'm sure the subsidiaries are feeling the pain. I waited for 3(ish) months before posting this as I wanted a clear / balanced perspective.
I know open layout is the de-facto default plan at many companies in Japan however -
this place feels like the Ministry of Truth from 1984. There are also far too many people for the space provided. Extra points to see how many people you infect when you come to work sick. We are crammed in so close as to feel the body heat of the adjacent people - I've never felt so claustrophobic before. Join Rakuten with the expectation of no personal space or privacy.
Expect to drink the Rakuten koolaid or be ostracized by management. The cult of personality is very strong here. Expect most people to treat the CEO as if he is the second coming of the savior and the “Rakuten Shugi” is the bible. Expect to be required to install Rakuten apps on your personal devices (also strictly enforced). Constructive criticism is not welcomed - it is seen as complaining and thus ignored. They even went to far as to get rid of Yammer a while back to silence employees. Everything is a KPI, everything requires a document, approval, attendance record or a long list of convoluted rules. Micro-management and shaming tactics (for the smallest of clerical mistakes) are taken to an Olympic levels here. I frequently thought “Resistance is futile” when dealing with most things.
Your desk must be clean - no personal effects in or around it. Desk and chair cleaning (even the chair wheels) every Monday by staff - strictly enforced. The company culture is extremely impersonal. If the building was hit by a comet, at most I would have lost a box of tissues in my desk. It gives off the feeling of you being part (cog) of the larger machine that is indifferent to your humanity (which they are).
The company PR department is good - which is bad for you. The website has many foreign nationals posing for pictures telling you how good it is. Those people are either a) Executive Level b) Management Level c) Gone. It gives the illusion of a flexible progressive workplace, for which it is the exact opposite.
If you want to get promoted you need to speak, act and preferably be Japanese. While you might see many non-Japanese during your time here, the majority of those individuals are not in management. As a non-Japanese, there are a (very) few ways to get promoted upward. Basically the requirements are politicking (brown-nosing) with executives, or being heavily connected in Silicon Valley or with Harvard / HBS. If you fall outside that sphere - the best of luck to you. Additionally, I must give an honorable mention to the completely incomprehensible elearning that everyone is required to take for promotion - no exceptions. The entire thing (100s of pages of presentation and several tests) is machine translated from Japanese. It wouldn't be so bad, but they outright refuse to fix nor acknowledge it as being a problem.
Semi-ok food but they have absurd limits on lunch (like only two baby tomatoes, one spoon of lettuce, 3 meatballs etc.). Word has it Rakuten low-balled the caterer on the contract which in turn shows in the quality of the food.
Do not expect to have training, joining parties or events, or some travel expenses paid for you. The company is cheap - and everything comes out of your pocket. While they will reimburse you for required travel, understanding the reimbursement process is like filing multi-year tax complicated forms to the National Tax Agency without a CPA. Best of luck with that.
Did I mention the stupid menial tasks? If so, it requires its own section. Expect to have irrelevant documentation, attendance, useless KPIs and PowerPoints to take of 25% of your day. Bikeshedding and other useless minutia in meetings will take up another 30%+ of your time and 90% of your sanity.
As another poster said “Caveat emptor” for which I wholeheartedly agree. If you still decide to join or not is your personal decision. However, if you do I suggest getting a DETAILED breakdown of your compensation package. Rakuten likes to play “semantics” with peoples money. One glaring example - the “bonus” (deferred salary) is actually a large percent of stock options that only vest after a half a decade; however, it is still listed as cash in the joining email they send you. Just do your due diligence to avoid any “regretful misunderstandings” later.
