Rakuten

• Free lunch (if you can find a seat)
• Did I mention the free lunch?
• In Tokyo, the office is mostly in a counter-commute direction.
• Many employee groups (e.g., Dragon Boat group)
• No 'written' Japanese requirement, but let's be honest: if you know Japanese, you will go places.

As has been said, Mikitani, or "Miki Miki" as everyone in Tokyo calls him, is a narcissist. Mikitani? Reading his "books" was like reading a novel on common sense.

Technical leaders and management are not qualified, out of date, and/or clueless. Layer upon layer upon layer of bureaucracy. Management and leaders have a complete and utter fear of failure. Did I mention the books you are supposed to read? Horrid salary.

On that note, used car sales style offers (e.g., if you rank in the top of the top, you could make "X" with salary + bonus). Impossible to make lofty goals that are simply unclear and are tied to the bonus mentioned above.

Projects destined to fail. Management making decisions on technology without understanding.

No clear corporate direction. For instance, in Japan, Rakuten is not only "Amazon" (or it wants to be when it grows up), but it is (in Japan) JCB, Docomo, Resona Bank, etc. In other words, a loss of focus on core competencies.

Literally during orientation (again, in Tokyo), you are almost forced to change your bank (to Rakuten), told not to order from Amazon, told to get a credit card (Rakuten), change phones (Rakuten), etc.

As mentioned above, no Japanese requirement, but wouldn't it be nice in Tokyo to have classes on basic Japanese so when/if you take a job, you can at least go to the dentist, doctor, restaurants, etc.? Alas, no classes offered from the organization, paid or otherwise.

Does it matter? They will not listen unless "Miki" says to do it.

Get out of the way. If you hire professionals, let them do their job.

Define your goals. If you want to be good at anything, think about customer service.

Stop buying companies and trying to be Google? Amazon? Docomo? MUFG? LineApp? What are you trying to be?

Stop idolizing Mikitani. He built a big company that is on the edge of a cliff.