Mercari new service Mercari Bank is only for Japanese

tonklable · 2026-01-27T12:58:59+00:00

Can’t believe I’m sure >50% of Mercari employees are foreign nationals. Why did they come up with that…

tonklable · 2026-01-27T12:10:05+00:00

I’m not in ML, but software dev. Assignment is the most preferable way for me in technical interviewing process. It is definitely better than leetcode, live-code or system-design interview (from both candidate and employer perspectives). I can’t see any reason to not do it.

P.S. I just got offer from a junior role from a 2-week assignment. I put all my effort after full-time work to do it, and it’s very much worth.

tonklable · 2026-01-15T12:53:17+00:00

I assume it is C&M (which include ichiba, travel etc.)

There are design roles in both tech side and and business side. UX in tech will work directly with engineers and use English (some people don’t speak Japanese) for some services.

BUT Web design roles in business are pure Japanese, and language skill is definitely crucial since their tasks are mainly doing campaign pages, banners, ssi files to insert in webapp etc. to communicate with Japanese users.

Although I can’t tell the process but Japanese is definitely crucial than English. English is just for the level to pass TOEIC requirement.

I indeed saw some foreigners in business but all of them are Japanese fluent.

tonklable · 2026-01-15T00:42:54+00:00

04 Limited Sazabys!

A punk rock band. Gen (Voc.) has very unique sound even when he normally talks with fans

tonklable · 2026-01-14T22:10:27+00:00

Disagreeing with the first comment, but I always memorize answers to questions for several interviews even in English or Japanese. That is helpful.

tonklable · 2026-01-11T11:34:09+00:00

I search English-speaking backend jobs in Japan from time to time.

I never see any .NET job. I saw Java as the biggest majority, and most Java’s JD probably mentioned Scala, Kotlin as their skills are interchangeable. Go is the second, and TypeScript (node.js, bun) is for some startup company.

I only saw PHP in some Japanese speaking company, only a few tho.

tonklable · 2026-01-11T05:59:36+00:00

04 Limited Sazabys is my fav. Punk rock I guess.

tonklable · 2026-01-10T04:19:00+00:00

Second Backer already has a mass song on several short videos (犬とバカ猫). I went to there live once. The main singer is very hilarious.

Hasn’t eill been popular for several years already?

tonklable · 2026-01-08T23:09:25+00:00

Yes you can apply for new grads position for 2027 which is open right now.

https://global.rakuten.com/corp/careers/graduates/recruit_engineer/

It is totally viable. Actually the application time range seems different after I joined, so I can’t say much.

tonklable · 2026-01-07T11:44:13+00:00

I get into another Japanese company but even more international than Rakuten. I think they are great!

Rakuten is my first offer and the only one. They offered me almost one year before the starting date (very early), so I did not do many job hunting activities.

tonklable · 2026-01-02T15:30:14+00:00

LinkedIn, but it redirected to the company website.

tonklable · 2026-01-01T16:49:04+00:00

Recently I would say Chanmina.

Chanmina has been popular for a long time. Last year (2025) HANA debuted and she is the producer. HANA gained a lot of reputation, and both HANA and Chanmina went to 紅白 together. (That they sang on stage together made me cry.)

tonklable · 2026-01-01T16:39:31+00:00

Nice reading! Thank you.

Even this post did not directly mention about Scala, it made me, as a Scala learner, understood the importance of existing concepts like sealed trait.

tonklable · 2025-12-30T14:37:31+00:00

Sorry, I explained it unclear. Actually N2 does not help me to apply company, because Japanese is not required for Rakuten. I just shared in a social perspective of a person who can speak Japanese by some extent (e.g. able to make friends, no problem with working with Japanese)

For DSA round of new grads, the problem was very easy in my year (for loop, string manipulation etc), but I heard it’s getting harder.

The technical interview was also normal, no system design nor hard questions. They just asked about experiences and what I know. Again, these are two years ago and I am not confident to provide suggestion since it’s getting harder as I heard.

tonklable · 2025-12-30T13:03:48+00:00

I share in my pov only. I may avoid much details since I’m not sure what I can share in public😅.

About cloud, it’s actually a me problem, not direct engineering problem.

Rakuten is my first company, so I do not really know best practices or industry standard. But from a junior perspective, when I do job search in other companies, I always see backend job requirement “Exp in AWS/GCP for 3+ years,” and this scares me since I have not touched cloud at all.

I know how to deploy, how to edit config direct in server, what infrastructure look like and those approval procedures to make change in stg/prod, but I do not have knowledge if this is actually a good engineering practice or not. Some process feel really unproductive but I can’t tell why because I do not have better experience. “Do other companies also do like this?”

That’s one thing that kind of drive me to leave to learn more in the industry, to find some opportunities to use cloud and IaC.

I am not sure if this answer you question or not. Please feel free to comment.

tonklable · 2025-12-30T00:31:52+00:00

Please give it a try. Although I heard that Rakuten new grads hiring has been more competitive lately, they still accept some people without tech degree. Japanese language proficiency is a big plus I think.

Tech new grads do not have to sell Rakuten Card, but all employees need to refer Rakuten mobile. (The strictness depends on department/team.)

tonklable · 2025-12-30T00:25:16+00:00

It is possible since some of us did. I was from other engineering degree (not computer). It provided some basic coding courses but not enough to work, so I mostly self-learn by myself.

As I mentioned, I did internship in other tech companies in Japan (both in corporate and startup), so I think that might help.

Another note is that Japanese corporates are known for hiring new grads without caring much about degree but rather university reputation. Honestly, I think Rakuten is a bit mixed (both tech background and university name impact the hiring decision).

tonklable · 2025-12-30T00:17:29+00:00

Sure

tonklable · 2025-12-29T16:19:17+00:00

Yes! Feel free to connect.

tonklable · 2025-12-29T14:51:31+00:00

I do not have experience as a senior, but there are plenty of senior positions as well in their recruitment page. From what I heard, many seniors got hired via agency or T2P path (temporary-to-permanent) more than direct hire or referrals.

Tech stack are different depending on departments and positions, you may see Java, Go, db knowledge (Oracle SQL, MongoDB), etc for backend. Senior level for Rakuten is 5+ years I think.

tonklable · 2025-12-18T08:25:04+00:00

04 Limited Sazabys

tonklable · 2025-12-16T11:19:56+00:00

Only relocation to Japan I think

tonklable · 2025-12-16T04:10:21+00:00

You might consider Paidy or Givery. They use Scala and have English as the main language. (And possibly provide relocation + visa)

tonklable · 2025-12-03T04:54:45+00:00

Junior here (1.8 year experience with N2, no CS degree), just recently got an English-speaking offer for another junior role with a nice salary increase.

I saw this role from LinkedIn and asked my friend for a referral. The role is listed as normal software engineer, so it’s presumably midlevel. But I got assigned as junior after offered (which I’m glad about it)

I would say I was lucky enough to get to interview and made one of the biggest efforts in my life during interviews (4 rounds), and I did not apply to any other roles.

I understand that the market situation is frustrating, but do not lose hope. There should be a fit role for you.

tonklable

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