1. How Rakuten is planning to run
their entire business in English?
s1180036 Taisuke Honda

2. Outline
● The shock of Rakuten
● What is Rakuten?
● The strategy of Rakuten
● Is it the same idea as Rakuten?
● Correspondence of other Japanese companies
(1)(2)
● Risk of Rakuten
● References

3. The shock of Rakuten
● Internet shopping mall operator Rakuten Inc.
surprised the public by announcing that
Rakuten will make English its official language
by 2012.
● That means all meetings and communications
within the company would be conducted solely
in English whether foreigners are present or
not.

4. What is Rakuten
● The Rakuten Inc. is Internet shopping mall
operator.
● The Rakuten group has 6,000 employees
globally, of whom about 400 are non-Japanese.
● The firm doesn’t keep track of how many non-
Japanese it has in Japan, while the 16 board
members at its headquarters in Tokyo are all
Japanese.

5. The strategy of Rakuten
● Rakuten says English skills will be critical to
achieve its plan of entering 27 overseas
markets, where it expects to become the
leading player, particularly in the field of online
shopping.
● English is indispensable for the global strategy
of the Rakuten.

6. Is it a similar move as Rakuten?
● Fast Retailing Co., operator of Uniqlo, the
nation's largest clothing chain, and with several
outlets around the world.
● Also, they announced a policy of using English
at metting where non-Japanese staff are
present.
● This is a similar move as Rakuten.

7. Correspondence of other
Japanese companies(1)
● Japanese companies looking to expand their
overseas sales don’t deny the merit of having
employees proficient in English.
● But they don't require their Japanese
employees to speak English to other Japanese
employees. Few have made it a rule to adopt
English as their official language.
● Japanese is the best language for Japanese to
communicate with each other.

8. Correspondence of other
Japanese companies(2)
● There is 10% or more of a company which is
making the score of TOEIC the conditions of
promotion.
● The company which is making the score of
TOEIC the conditions of promotion is
considered to increase increasingly from now
on.
● However, few have made it a rule to adopt
English as their official language.

9. Risk of Rakuten
● The degree to which English is necessary at
Rakuten is far lower than companies like
Nissan and Nomura.
● Thus, it is questionable whether Rakuten
employees’ commitment will last.
● Even people who absolutely have to learn
English give up learning, because many
Rakuten employees don’t need to speak
English.

10. References
● The Japan Times News
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20100716f1.html
● JAPANTODAY
http://www.japantoday.com/category/kuchikomi/view/rakutens-decision-on-english-not-welcomed-by-everyone
● The Washington Post
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-08-06/world/35490390_1_english-hiroshi-mikitani-uniqlo
● CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/18/business/english-language-business