Language and Globalization: Englishization at Rakuten
Case Study Team 4
Lucie RIHOVA, Jordan PERRET (Grenoble)/Yoko SHIMIZU, Takayoshi MIMIYAMA (Tsukuba)
Case Study: Language and Globalization: “Englishnization” at
Rakuten
This case study report tries to find recommendations for Japanese company Rakuten. The huge project called “Englishnization”, which the company started in 2010, tries to change the main company language from Japanese to English. However, with the project’s deadline approaching,
Rakuten’s management finds itself in a difficult position as the employees are not as good at speaking English as expected. The purpose of this report is to identify key issues, propose possible options and finally recommend further steps in the effort of “Englishnization” in a huge company.
Issues
While dealing with the issues, we have decided to use a mind-map to help us sort the multiple issues we found into a few large groups. This mind-map can be seen in Annex 1.
Using this tool, multiple large issues concerning the ambitious plan of Englishnization emerged:
First very significant problem, and quite probably the main issue in introducing English into
Rakuten is the clash with Japanese culture. As the article says, Japan has always scored significantly low on the international TOIEC tests and Japanese are objectively slower learners than Chinese or Indian regarding languages. Also, there is a feeling of distrust and even dislike of the English, probably due to a complicated history with the Anglophone world.
The second large issue we discovered is the quick and harsh way change has been decided. There was no discussion with the managers, no preparation beforehand – as the article says, all the changes were done almost overnight, which is not a good way of motivating people into a new concept, as the feeling of fear and mistrust may emerge (and as we see from the article, they really did). Then, there is a group of issues which was for working purposes called “losing good employees”.
This says that due to exaggerated
Lucie RIHOVA, Jordan PERRET (Grenoble)/Yoko SHIMIZU, Takayoshi MIMIYAMA (Tsukuba)
Case Study: Language and Globalization: “Englishnization” at
Rakuten
This case study report tries to find recommendations for Japanese company Rakuten. The huge project called “Englishnization”, which the company started in 2010, tries to change the main company language from Japanese to English. However, with the project’s deadline approaching,
Rakuten’s management finds itself in a difficult position as the employees are not as good at speaking English as expected. The purpose of this report is to identify key issues, propose possible options and finally recommend further steps in the effort of “Englishnization” in a huge company.
Issues
While dealing with the issues, we have decided to use a mind-map to help us sort the multiple issues we found into a few large groups. This mind-map can be seen in Annex 1.
Using this tool, multiple large issues concerning the ambitious plan of Englishnization emerged:
First very significant problem, and quite probably the main issue in introducing English into
Rakuten is the clash with Japanese culture. As the article says, Japan has always scored significantly low on the international TOIEC tests and Japanese are objectively slower learners than Chinese or Indian regarding languages. Also, there is a feeling of distrust and even dislike of the English, probably due to a complicated history with the Anglophone world.
The second large issue we discovered is the quick and harsh way change has been decided. There was no discussion with the managers, no preparation beforehand – as the article says, all the changes were done almost overnight, which is not a good way of motivating people into a new concept, as the feeling of fear and mistrust may emerge (and as we see from the article, they really did). Then, there is a group of issues which was for working purposes called “losing good employees”.
This says that due to exaggerated