How Rakuten is planning to run

their entire business in English?

ｓ１１８００４３

Mitsuru Abe

What Rakuten

Global expansion

Official Language

Official Language

Rakuten all English

English

TOEIC score

Rakuten bisiness

Reference

Outline

Rakuten, Inc is a Japanese electronic commerce and

Internet company based in Tokyo, Japan . Among its

numerous online properties, its flagship B2B2C e-

commerce platform Rakuten Ichiba is the largest e-

commerce site in Japan and among the world's largest by

sales.

What Rakuten

2005 - Rakuten bought New York City.

2011 - After launching Indonesia 's Rakuten Belanja

Online, a joint venture in June the group continued its

global growth the same month, snapping up Brazilian e-

commerce firm Ikeda.

2012 - Rakuten bought Canadian e-book reader

company Kobo in January.

Global expansion

Major Internet shopping site operator Rakuten Inc. said

English will become its official language by the end of

fiscal 2012, as the company expands aggressively

overseas.

Official Language

The Rakuten group has 6,000 employees globally, of

whom about 400 are non-Japanese, spokesman Naoki

Mizushima said. 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,

he said.

Rakuten all English

Tokyo-based Rakuten this year has encouraged the use

of English among its employees. For example, Rakuten

executives now deliver their presentations in English,

while documents distributed at executive and other

meetings must also be written in English.

English

Achieving certain scores in the TOEIC, or the Test of

English for International Communication, will be

required for promotion, Rakuten spokesman Megumu

Tanefusa said. The range of required TOEIC scores is

from 600 to 750 depending on job title, but workers in

the lowest two levels don't need TOEIC scores, he said.

TOEIC score

The group's 2010 annual report shows that its online

shopping business, Rakuten Ichiba, was Japan's largest

online shopping mall, offering customers more than 95

million products from about 40,000 merchants.

Rakuten bisiness

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201007010404.html

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2010/07/16/news/rak

utens-all-english-edict-a-bold-move-but-risky-too/

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/economy/business/AJ201206

300064

Reference