Pros: Free lunch. An interesting international community, with an increasing number of foreign hires from many backgrounds. Opportunities to interact with many aspects of a large corporation.

Cons: ~Englishnization is not real. Most domestic businesses are Japanese only. ~Power harassment, sexual harassment are common. Not addressed by HR. ~Extremely dense political climate - promotions and projects are decided much more by personal connections than by merit. Decision making is extremely top-down ~All KPIs are based on instant gratification metrics without concern for sustainable growth. Anything not related to ad sales and immediate revenue is ignored. (Working in a technical position unrelated to ad sales meant little chance to be noticed or evaluated fairly)

Pros: Office and benefits are great.

Cons: I was going for a frontend position at this company. But, for real, I joined the company as a web developer.

Pros: - Lots of cool people you will meet, and most of them become your closest friends or buddies that you can ever wish for in your life. - Meeting all interesting people in there who make the work life more bearable. - Free lunch.

Cons: I've tried to wait a while before writing this to get an actual perspective on what it's really like. This may not be the case for all, but it's what I experienced. * Incompetent salary. Tax raised from 5% to 8% almost two years ago. The salary system stayed the same. Do you really care about employee welfare? On the day I left, I found out that I got a pay rise of less than 20 USD per month. I think that's enough said. * Not enough retention for motivated people. I went into Rakuten with the intention to really improve. But after working with clueless management, I felt deterred from what I could actually gain. All there is are KPIs. Where is customer satisfaction ever considered? * Work increase without pay increase. If you love your work, you should not care about the salary. That's a very common attitude expected here. Well, passion doesn't pay rent, does it? Enough is stated for this too. * Bonus. A heap of it is actually stock options. Most of which you won't ever get as a foreigner, as you will be leaving in three years' time. It only activates after half a decade. Moreover, its decreasing as stock options are rising. * Morning Tuesday meetings. The CEO is the savior of the company. Nothing stands above, and the Shugi book is the only thing that matters to the company. The only way to succeed is the CEO's way, no one else. Seems like a cult culture.