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. 72% 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?

72% 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 252 reviews)); "Free food for 3 meals per day (you have to arrive early and leave late for breakfast and dinner)." ((in 201 reviews)); "Nice people to work with" ((in 180 reviews)); "Good benefits including some paid lunches each week and you cant forget the In" ((in 131 reviews)); "Free meals and snacks" ((in 102 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 284 reviews)); "Management is bad and HRs are not friendly." ((in 194 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 44 reviews)); "Bad upper management." ((in 34 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

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Rakuten

Rakuten reviews

3.6

72% would recommend to a friend

(3,549 total reviews)

Hiroshi Mikitani

77% approve of CEO

56% positive business outlook

Ratings by category

4.0

Diversity & inclusion

3.8

Work/Life balance

3.6

Culture & values

3.4

Career opportunities

3.3

Compensation and benefits

3.0

Senior management

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).

Ratings by demographic groups

Race / Ethnicity

Gender

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Parent or family caregiver

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Reviews by job title

4K reviews

4.0

Apr 22, 2021

Great team but poor leadership

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Startup culture but security of a bigger company

Cons

Poor leadership and lots of people leaving

2.0

Apr 5, 2021

Sinking ship

Software engineer

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

- Good work life balance - Food

Cons

- Lot of politics === Less actual work - Middle management is not motivated enough to work - No growth/path defined - Micromanagement is the norm - Pretty hostile environment to work - Lot of talks about diversity and inclusion but no actual work/steps

2.0

Jan 12, 2021

Not what it used to be

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

They are doing a good job of keeping up with the Joneses in terms of competing with leading tech companies and the perks they offer. Internal growth is available if you stick it out long enough. Changes are happening constantly so you're able to get your foot in the door on different teams fairly easily.

Cons

Rakuten used to be a phenomenal place to work with a great culture but they've made some management replacement decisions that have been terrible. Current management creates huge bottlenecks with decision-making. They have some serious problems with the individuals they have leading teams. They have not been hiring compassionate managers but power hungry, ego-obsessed people who have no business leading a team. No management training whatsoever and employee feedback is generally ignored. They are really good at saying the right thing but not backing it up (especially regarding diversity & inclusion).

Viewing 286 - 288 of 3,549 Reviews

Jobs at Rakuten

Intern - Graphic Design, Internal Communications

Director, Procurement

Early Career AI Engineer (Contract)

Director, Procurement

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Great team but poor leadership

Sinking ship

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