My Rakuten Experience: Junya

Junya is a Senior Manager at the Company Corporate Planning and Management Department

Current Job

I manage the sales and accounting departments of each business section in the company. In addition to day-to-day operations, I am responsible for building processes for payment, billing and appropriation when joint ventures and new businesses are launched. Since a split within the Rakuten Group occurred in April 2019, my biggest task has been to help with reorganization. I am currently planning for the future organizational structure of my current company as well as other companies, and reporting to and consulting with the Vice President and CFO (Chief Financial Officer) while considering the policies for the new company’s functions in order to promote projects. It is tough, but as a project manager in charge of the Ad & Marketing Company, I feel I am engaged in an extremely valuable task that I may not be able to experience.

Background

I launched an e-commerce business when I was an undergraduate. I did everything by myself, from creating the website to buy-ins and sales, but there were hardly any sales. I remember I didn’t have many ideas about SEO measures, and I had to search for my website by myself many times to get the site to appear at the top of search engines.

In the end, after less than a year, I changed my mind and challenged myself to become a certified public accountant, which I heard helped many people become independent. After obtaining certification, I worked at an auditing firm mainly in accounting, auditing and advisory. I was able to gain a certain level of experience, and although the firm I worked for was a member firm of a global company, the opportunities to work overseas were limited. I decided to change jobs because I wanted new experiences in a company like Rakuten, which has a venture company-like spirit and promotes overseas expansion.

Work Environment

I spend my days having discussions with managers from other departments who have expertise in finance and accounting, taxation, legal affairs and the other business roles. I learn a lot from people with various backgrounds in the company, which allows me to find concrete methodologies for difficult topics, such as what each of us considers important, what actions are necessary to resolve issues and what approaches are efficient. In the past, I was the project leader for the early adoption of “IFRS 15 (Revenue Recognition Standard under International Financial Reporting Standards)”, where we were one of only a few companies in the world to create an early adoption case study. The word “challenge” appropriately describes Rakuten, as it provides plenty of opportunities for me to deepen my knowledge and career.

Career Goals

My personal goal has always been to remain an independent businessperson. This is because I have always wanted to be able to make fair decisions. On top of that, I think that working for a company provides you the opportunity to work in an environment where you can maximize your contribution to the company and your own growth. Rakuten provides such an environment. I believe that self-improvement is necessary, no matter your location or stage in life. In that sense, the ideal environment is a place where you can create opportunities to challenge yourself.

What do you like about the working environment/systems at Rakuten?

The cafeteria (company cafeteria), where three basic meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) are free. I really appreciate that I can save time on meal preparation. Plus, I like the fact that I can usually wear casual clothes to work.

What is the average duration of one project?

It’s a case-by-case thing, but our reorganization project took over six months, which is longer than usual.

What do you do on your days off?

 I am always preparing for the next step, which for now is to gather information and study. As I have a daughter, I also go to a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant, which is her favorite place, or to the park. I used to dance all the time from junior high school until a few years ago, and I used to do some pretty intense exercises such as kickboxing as well, but I haven’t been able to do much lately. Instead, these days I’ve been going to the golf driving range for some light exercise.

*The affiliation and contents of the article are based on the contents at the time of the interview.

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