The Japanese and U.S. governments are planning to jointly monitor e-commerce giant Rakuten Group Inc. for fear of customer data falling into the hands of Chinese authorities, sources with knowledge of the matter said Tuesday.
A group company of Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. has become Rakuten's major shareholder with a 3.65% stake, apparently raising alarm among Japanese and U.S. authorities for national security reasons.
Based on a law on foreign investment, the Japanese government is expected to conduct interviews regularly with Rakuten, and share the information with the U.S. government, the sources said.