The recent moves by up-and-coming companies such as Rakuten Inc. and Fast Retailing Co. to adopt English as their official in-house language by 2012 reveal their resolve to compete globally to survive.
Rakuten President Hiroshi Mikitani's call for executives who can't speak English by 2012 to leave the online shopping mall operator has caused ripples among Japanese businesspeople who struggle to master the language. But company officials say the decision was one "of necessity."
At its headquarters in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo, where name tags of employees, floor directories in elevators, menus in its cafeteria and even the labels on recycling trash cans are all in English, Rakuten officials said the language will be "essential" as the firm expands into 27 countries and regions.