Is Rakuten a good company to work for?

Rakuten has an overall rating of 3.6 out of 5, based on over 4,199 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 (472) , 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 249 reviews)); "Free food and drinks 24/7; very casual attire; mid" ((in 209 reviews)); "Nice people to work with" ((in 182 reviews)); "Good benefits including some paid lunches each week and you cant forget the In" ((in 126 reviews)); "Free meals and snacks" ((in 109 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 295 reviews)); "Management is bad and HRs are not friendly." ((in 187 reviews)); "Some groups have very high attrition for senior managers due to lack of clarity of role." ((in 133 reviews)); "Leadership is weak and only knows how to emulate their Japanese counterpart which doesn't seem to work in the US." ((in 42 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 , Boston , New York , 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

(3,545 total reviews)

Hiroshi Mikitani

77% approve of CEO

56% positive business outlook

Ratings by demographic groups

Race / Ethnicity

Gender

Sexual orientation

Disability

Parent or family caregiver

Veteran status

Rakuten has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 3,545 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

3.0

Mar 3, 2016

Account Manager

Account manager

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Wonderful people to work with on a day-to-day basis, casual work environment, team members are all very knowledgeable and driven to succeed. Most employees feel very empowered to create their own career path.

Cons

Disconnect between upper management and the people on the ground floor. CEO only values the Display channel even when the Affiliate team brings in the absolute majority of company revenue.

3.0

Apr 20, 2015

Company lacked leadership

Account manager

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

- Casual work environment - Excellent perks (frequent catered lunches, snacks provided, great vacation policy, etc.) - Everyone from entry level employees to upper management are given open forums to speak and give opinions

Cons

- Leadership team that came from HQ in Japan completely lacked direction, management skills, creative thinking and people skills - Big language barrier between leadership and staff - Huge differences in cultural beliefs between leadership and staff - Decisions made did not seem best for the company - too focused on top line and not enough on profit - There were unreasonable expectations (i.e. Rakuten is the biggest online retailer in Japan, it expected the same results in the US when heavy hitters like Amazon, eBay and Walmart are lightyears ahead of the rest of the competition).

2.0

Feb 2, 2015

Hard Times at Buy.com

Ecommerce coordinator

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Open work environment, In-n-out Truck once per month, solid benefits

Cons

Compensation is low, the company tends to not promote from within

Viewing 139 - 141 of 3,545 Reviews

Jobs at Rakuten

Intern - Data Science

Early Career AI Engineer (Contract)

Early Career AI Engineer (Contract)

Intern - Graphic Design, Internal Communications

Rakuten

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Account Manager

Company lacked leadership

Hard Times at Buy.com

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