Interesting problems, but no respect for employees
Pros
- Meet a few intelligent engineers and scientists - Respect from Japanese people you meet outside the company - Depending on your department, you can have a budget and leeway - If you're a foreigner and want to work in a Japanese company this is probably the best. But that isn't really saying much. Just move to America or Europe?
Cons
- Employees are treated like children and/or servants. Leave your cabinet unlocked? You have to stand up in front of the whole company (11,000 employees) and bow and say you're sorry. Want to enter from the front entrance? No, you have to enter through the back/service entrance during the day. Want to take the elevator? Disabled on certain floors. Want to buy a drink? No, you have to use a Rakuten credit card. - "Rakuten Police" security guards and long windowless corridors make the place feel like 1984. - No chance of promotion, all promotions are based on a) favor with CEO b) age, just like in most Japanese companies c) being a Japanese - Salary is on the bottom end of any scale. Bare minimum. - Wrecking all foreign subsidiaries it keeps buying (they all leave - Linkshare, FreeCause, Buy.com etc). - Non-Japanese staff are often very rude and have a sense of entitlement since they are treated like "Mr Charisma-man" celebrities in Japan. - Japanese staff often drop homophobic or sexist comments, as these aren't really frowned upon in Japan that much. - "Optional" but not-optional meetings. At 7.30am on a Tuesday. It hurts. - ID badges that have to be worn at all times. If you forget it, you have to go home and get it. - Very short vacation time (10 to 14 days). Have to apologize and grovel to bosses before taking vacations as if you are letting them down. - Despite "Englishnization" 90% of employees cannot speak English. Meetings are meant to be in English, but no one cares. - CEO went to Harvard and loves people who went to Harvard just because of the name. So there are some ridiculous hires for his own vanity - as in managing directors who are new grads just because they went there. - Engineering floors are crammed with desks and hundreds of indian and japanese programmers slaving away for hours. - Embarrassingly bad web design, translations and site functionality when explaining the site to other foreigners. Means that Rakuten is going to have a tough time in the USA/Europe. - Company often invests in malware and spams users with hundreds of mails per week.
