Heading into the grandiose welcoming ceremony for new employees, I was utterly surprised by the scale of Rakuten's ambitions to become global...well, on the surface, at least. Dozens of foreign employees from across the globe (especially a group of Chinese students directly hired from the mainland) and the whole ceremony was conducted in English.
It seems that Rakuten takes its promise to become English-speaking very seriously. But, as the ceremony continues, the Japanese side of the company really began to take over. Even as (heavily-accented) English continues to fly, the ceremony was no different from any other Japanese one.
The big bosses and the little new guys all bowed solemnly, and applause and cheers were not to be heard at any point. Even after the ceremony at a little welcoming snack session, the CEO passing through the room was treated as if homecoming of a celebrity, with us the new guys herded around him for a highly scripted (and highly unnatural and awkward) "conversation."
Of course, there is no denying that Rakuten continues to be an overwhelmingly Japanese company. Most of the clientèle and employees (even the new ones) are Japanese, and even as the 2012 English conversion deadline pass by, the conversations among most employees outside work continue to be Japanese. As I have said before, changing a language is easy, but changing to a culture that fits the language? not so much....
I don't want to repeat my views on Japanese corporate culture, I am tired of talking about those cliches. But those cliches exist because they are real and highly impressionable, or should I say, haunting for the many foreigners who has to put up with Japanese culture in this so-called "global company."
The thing that probably showed in the most obvious way Rakuten's lack of readiness for globalization is its training procedures. Unbelievably, all manuals for software setups (required by all new employees) are completely in Japanese with no English versions anywhere to be found. After hiring HR saying that new year's applicants don't even need to speak Japanese, this is quite shocking.
And whats more surprising is that outside of few people in top management, most Japanese employees (including the new ones coming in) doesn't seem to be living up to the global workplace the big boss is trying so hard to create. Outside of polite conversations, clear gap and distance between foreign and Japanese employees exist. And of course, the higher in the corporate structure, the fewer foreigners are seen (with none on the board of directors).
Perhaps the group in the best position to bridge this foreign Rakuten-Japanese Rakuten schism is the (small) group of Japanese students who have studied abroad. Unfortunately, most of them tend not to escape from Japanese culture in the years abroad, so they tend to remain mostly Japanese (who just happened to be absent from Japan for a few years)...I suppose the foreign-conscious Japanese students would have stayed in whatever foreign countries they studied in rather than come look for a job in Japan.
It seems that Rakuten takes its promise to become English-speaking very seriously. But, as the ceremony continues, the Japanese side of the company really began to take over. Even as (heavily-accented) English continues to fly, the ceremony was no different from any other Japanese one.
The big bosses and the little new guys all bowed solemnly, and applause and cheers were not to be heard at any point. Even after the ceremony at a little welcoming snack session, the CEO passing through the room was treated as if homecoming of a celebrity, with us the new guys herded around him for a highly scripted (and highly unnatural and awkward) "conversation."
Of course, there is no denying that Rakuten continues to be an overwhelmingly Japanese company. Most of the clientèle and employees (even the new ones) are Japanese, and even as the 2012 English conversion deadline pass by, the conversations among most employees outside work continue to be Japanese. As I have said before, changing a language is easy, but changing to a culture that fits the language? not so much....
I don't want to repeat my views on Japanese corporate culture, I am tired of talking about those cliches. But those cliches exist because they are real and highly impressionable, or should I say, haunting for the many foreigners who has to put up with Japanese culture in this so-called "global company."
The thing that probably showed in the most obvious way Rakuten's lack of readiness for globalization is its training procedures. Unbelievably, all manuals for software setups (required by all new employees) are completely in Japanese with no English versions anywhere to be found. After hiring HR saying that new year's applicants don't even need to speak Japanese, this is quite shocking.
And whats more surprising is that outside of few people in top management, most Japanese employees (including the new ones coming in) doesn't seem to be living up to the global workplace the big boss is trying so hard to create. Outside of polite conversations, clear gap and distance between foreign and Japanese employees exist. And of course, the higher in the corporate structure, the fewer foreigners are seen (with none on the board of directors).
Perhaps the group in the best position to bridge this foreign Rakuten-Japanese Rakuten schism is the (small) group of Japanese students who have studied abroad. Unfortunately, most of them tend not to escape from Japanese culture in the years abroad, so they tend to remain mostly Japanese (who just happened to be absent from Japan for a few years)...I suppose the foreign-conscious Japanese students would have stayed in whatever foreign countries they studied in rather than come look for a job in Japan.
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