Pros
Free meals, people from many countries Personally I do not mind the strong executive presence and 1-man-show of the CEO. I do not expect him to show off with detailed knowledge of all domains or Oxford-English presentations. But... (see cons)
Cons
Absolutely incompetent management, at all levels. This has been described on Glassdoor in all details, especially the Yes-men-culture. Written codes of expectations on managers exist, but are not practiced due to wrong training, horrible performance evaluations and exiling those who actually follow sound management practices. The "talent" that is grown in this place (usually the people who do not know any better or have failed in real, top-notch companies) is making their way up by practicing this terrible management style. You will spend much of your time having pointless discussions with those guys on the difference between the "Rakuten way" and the rational, right way. It seems the company has passed the critical mass of intolerable people. So if you are a bureaucrat, micro-manager, like to attend pointless meetings, stay long in the office for no reason, then this is the place for you. Those who actually have talent, they leave soon or cash in the paycheck. Took me a while to regenerate myself from this experience. Anti-MBA, a description I read on this site, is actually a pretty good description for the working style there. I talked with some other people who also left recently, they left for the same reason, which was the horrible working culture and management style. I have learned to chose my jobs more carefully. Looking back, leaving the company was exactly the right decision. Some other remarks: - Relatively low salary - Crowded, noisy office - Many people still only speak Japanese - Low morale among workforce