Rakuten : completes transition to company-system organization

Tokyo, July 1, 2016 - Rakuten today announced completion of the transition to an organization based on an internal company-system, an initiative designed to drive responsiveness to user and partner needs, delivering assured service quality and maximizing customer satisfaction in a rapidly changing market environment.

'Since establishment twenty years ago, Rakuten has achieved remarkable growth while remaining true to our core mission of empowerment of people and society through the internet, as well as cultural values that foster a spirit of entrepreneurship and a commitment to generating synergy through the sharing of best practices, also known internally as 'Yoko-ten'.' said Hiroshi Mikitani, Chairman and CEO of Rakuten Inc. 'The introduction of a new organizational structure now will allow each internal company to become more agile in response to the changing needs of users and partners in each of the many industries we operate in, as well as enable us to leverage the latest new technologies to offer innovative services and continue to grow.'

The internal company-system structure is comprised of 12 company groups to manage the business operations and one group headquarters to provide corporate functions, ensuring agility within each company, as well as accountability and transparency from a corporate governance perspective. Within this structure, service development and web design resources are being deployed within each company, and each of the company leaders will be empowered to accelerate decision-making in order to respond to change and lead their respective businesses to new levels of growth. Group headquarters will be charged with developing group strategy, providing support to the companies as required to achieve their growth plans, and strengthening the core corporate functions essential to a robust and accountable corporate governance structure.

In order to strengthen governance across the Rakuten group, the new organizational structure includes the appointment of a Chief Compliance Officer at the Group level, as well as the new appointment of Company Chief Compliance Officers within each of the 12 companies. Each Company Chief Compliance Officer will be tasked with ensuring execution of Group-wide compliance policies and programs, as well as supervising implementation and reporting of policies and programs unique to each company.

With this organizational structure in place, Rakuten will continue to strive to achieve the goals outlined in our mid-term strategy plan Vision 2020.

Organizational Charthttp://global.rakuten.com/corp/about/organization.html