Question the Conventional: How Hiroshi Mikitani Pioneered Japan's Internet
"Conventional wisdom is nothing more than the logic of the majority." There is a man who says exactly that. Hiroshi Mikitani, the entrepreneur who single-handedly built Rakuten Group, is now indispensable to any discussion of Japan's internet economy.
He gave up an elite banking career of his own accord and dove in at a time when the public still side-eyed the internet as suspect. He floored everyone by declaring English the company's official language — and then made it stick. He acquired a baseball team and a soccer club, and pushed all the way into the mobile phone business. With the face of a man who loves logic, he does the most unconventional things of anyone in the room. That is Hiroshi Mikitani.
A Kobe Boy Heads to Harvard
Hiroshi Mikitani was born on March 11, 1965, in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture. His father, Ryoichi Mikitani, was an economist and Professor Emeritus at Kobe University — Hiroshi grew up in a household steeped in scholarship. After Matsugaoka Elementary School and Asagiri Junior High, he graduated from Hyogo Prefectural Akashi High School in 1983 and went on to the Faculty of Commerce at Hitotsubashi University.
At university he captained the tennis club, immersing himself in the world of competition. After graduating from Hitotsubashi in 1988, he joined the Industrial Bank of Japan, and in 1993 he earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. It was the very heart of the elite track — a career that seemed to promise a secure future.
Trading Security for a Bet on the Web
But Mikitani let that security go. In 1995 he left the Industrial Bank of Japan and founded Crimson Group. Then, in 1997, he established M·D·M, Inc. (now Rakuten Group) and opened the internet shopping mall Rakuten Ichiba.
At a time when the internet was not yet widely trusted, he pressed forward alone on the conviction that the future belonged to the web. His read proved right, and Rakuten Ichiba grew rapidly. In 2000 it was listed on the Japan Securities Dealers Association over-the-counter market, drawing attention as a flagship venture. The gamble of abandoning a banker's safe seat had paid off handsomely.
Two Teams, Two Hometowns
As his business expanded, Mikitani moved into the world of sports. In 2003 he acquired the J-League's Vissel Kobe and became its owner. The following year, in 2004, he founded the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, bringing a new club into professional baseball.
His hometown of Kobe and the Tohoku region that now hosted his ballclub — Mikitani threw himself into energizing both. In 2013 the Rakuten Eagles won the Japan Series, thrilling the people of Tohoku who longed for recovery after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Often seen as a coldly logical manager, here he revealed a surprisingly warm, big-hearted side.
The Man Who Said "It's Only English"
What truly put Mikitani's name on the map was his audacious decision to make English Rakuten's internal corporate language. The public scoffed — "What is this Japanese company talking about?" — but he paid no mind, carrying it through in the spirit of his own book, "It's Only English!" To make happen, by sheer stubbornness, whatever he had said he would: that was his trademark.
His achievements and presence won recognition at home and abroad. He received the Japan Innovator Award in 2004, and in 2012 he became the youngest recipient at the time of the Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award. In 2014 the French government made him a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, and that same year he became chairman of the New Economy Federation.
Aiming to Be the Fourth Carrier
Mikitani's challenges never stopped. In 2019, Rakuten Group entered the mobile phone business in earnest as Rakuten Mobile, aiming to become Japan's "fourth carrier." Taking on a market dominated by three massive incumbents with enormous investment was, again, a move befitting a man who questions conventional wisdom.
In his personal life, he married his wife, Haruko, in 1991 and has two children, a son and a daughter. His hobbies are tennis and karaoke. Standing 181 centimeters tall, he won a Best Dresser Award in 2019. A prolific author, he has freely put his management philosophy into words in books such as "92 Rules of Success" and "Rakuten Style."
Abandoning the elite banking track to bet on the internet in an era when everyone doubted it. Forcing through English as the company language over public objection. Firing up his hometowns with a baseball team and a soccer club. Hiroshi Mikitani's path has been the living embodiment of "question the conventional."
With the face of a man devoted to logic, what he does runs hotter than anyone's. Perhaps the person who strays furthest from conventional wisdom is the very man who preaches questioning it. The entrepreneur who pioneered Japan's internet economy still leans forward, eyes fixed on the next challenge.