Is Rakuten a good company to work for?

Rakuten has an overall rating of 3.6 out of 5, based on over 4,203 reviews left anonymously by employees. This rating has been stable over the past 12 months. 71% of employees would recommend working at Rakuten to a friend and 56% have a positive outlook for the business. The best reviews about Rakuten have been left by employees working as Manager , Software Engineer and Account Manager .

Does Rakuten pay their employees well?

According to anonymously submitted Glassdoor reviews, Rakuten employees rate their compensation and benefits as 3.3 out of 5. Find out more about salaries and benefits at Rakuten. This rating has been stable over the past 12 months.

How satisfied are employees working at Rakuten?

71% of Rakuten employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews . Employees also rated Rakuten 3.8 out of 5 for work life balance, 3.6 for culture and values and 3.4 for career opportunities.

What are the top reviewed jobs at Rakuten?

Software Engineer (473) , Senior Software Engineer (176) , Applications Engineer (129) , Product Manager (94) , Project Manager (80) , Data Scientist (62) , Manager (59) , Associate Software Engineer (51) , Account Manager (45) , Software Developer (39) , Technical Intern (33) , Intern (29) , Systems Engineer (29) , Devops Engineer (27) , Internship (26)

What are the pros of working at Rakuten according to real employee reviews?

"Also good work life balance because products are not profitable which leads to no major development work." ((in 256 reviews)); "Free food for 3 meals per day (you have to arrive early and leave late for breakfast and dinner)." ((in 205 reviews)); "Nice people to work with" ((in 187 reviews)); "Good benefits including some paid lunches each week and you cant forget the In" ((in 132 reviews)); "Free meals and snacks" ((in 96 reviews))

What are the cons of working at Rakuten according to real employee reviews?

"1. Salary is low for fresh graduate (I heard that the salary of mid" ((in 290 reviews)); "Management is bad and HRs are not friendly." ((in 190 reviews)); "Sometimes managers have no technical knowledge or hands on experience making technical decisions and those projects are promised to fail or become a nightmare." ((in 136 reviews)); "Leadership is weak and only knows how to emulate their Japanese counterpart which doesn't seem to work in the US." ((in 45 reviews)); "Bad upper management." ((in 32 reviews))

What are employees saying about Rakuten layoffs in 2026?

Explore Glassdoor’s employee reviews to understand what current and former employees are saying about Rakuten layoffs and their outlook for job security at Rakuten in 2026.

What are the top reviewed Rakuten locations?

San Mateo , New York , Boston , San Francisco , Beloit , Aliso Viejo , Salt Lake City , Chicago , San Diego , Tampa , Japan , Midvale , Henderson , Seattle , Austin , Houston , Los Angeles , Denver , Las Vegas , Japan , Layton , Norfolk , Lansing , Dallas , Grand Prairie , Fresno , Costa Mesa , San Jose , Quincy , Wilkes Barre

Rakuten reviews

3.6

71% would recommend to a friend

(3,549 total reviews)

Hiroshi Mikitani

77% approve of CEO

56% positive business outlook

Ratings by demographic groups

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Rakuten has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 3,549 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Rakuten employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

4K reviews

1.0

May 28, 2014

very traditional Japanese corporate culture and militaristic top-down management style.

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Like other Japanese companies, it seems very difficult to get fired.

Cons

Very bad work-life balance- people are expected to work from 8am to 10, 11pm (considered very normal). The pay is very bad and the company is very stingy. The management makes you feel like you belong to a military troop or very "taiikukai-kei" Japanese sports team; you cannot question your boss who insults and throws fits at whoever cannot achieve the impossible KPIs. The company has so many inefficient aspects- every employee has to attend an asa-kai at 8am in which more than half of employees sleep. There are numerous mandatory meetings in which its just a waste of time. The take-away: Long Hours, inefficient work style, rude and disrespectful management who doesnt care about employees, depressing office building that reminds of prison cells.

2.0

May 27, 2014

No future

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Really casual work environment Catered lunches twice a week Little supervision Decent culture Flexible work hours

Cons

No opportunities for growth Work gets repetitive fast General attitude of upper management makes me wonder about the company's future The company has been getting very stagnant ever since it's purchase. With all the other e-commerce sites out there, I can't see Rakuten.com staying in business much longer. All the back end on the IT side is horribly outdated.

2.0

May 25, 2014

Good for fresh graduates but for long term career development

Business unit new grad

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

-Sales call training is very demanding, but since sale call is still important in Japan, this might get you in the door to the next job -It is a company that is frequently talked about in Japan; recruiters contact you a lot on LinkedIn after the first 6 months -Many foreigners are hired so you get to practice English; TOEIC training is also for free

Cons

-Assignment happens after training period so in theory, it matches your background and training performance; but in reality it is not. Department assignments seem very random and not the same as HR tells you about during interviews; Japanese new grads get assigned to branches far away in short notice, and it is not easy to come back. -New grads with undergrads degree gets almost zero bonus for the first 15 months; and when you finally get it, company decides to turn a big part of it into stock option with crazy vesting policy -Very typical upside-down decision making and long hours required for tasks that could have been done faster if not manually; also first 40 hours of over time is not paid

Viewing 3418 - 3420 of 3,549 Reviews

Jobs at Rakuten

Intern - Data Science

Intern - Business Development

Intern - Employee Relations

Rakuten

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very traditional Japanese corporate culture and militaristic top-down management style.

No future

Good for fresh graduates but for long term career development

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