Hiroshi Mikitani

is a Japanese billionaire business magnate and writer. He is the founder and CEO of Rakuten, Inc. He is also the president of Crimson Group, chairman of the football club Vissel Kobe, chairman of Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and a board member of Lyft and The Thacher School.

Early life and education Mikitani was born in 1965 and raised in Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. His father Ryōichi Mikitani served as Chairman of Japan Society Of Monetary Economics and was a professor at Kobe University. His mother Setsuko was a graduate of Kobe University and worked for a trading company; she had attended elementary school in New York. and was a co-founder of Minolta. and taught for two years at Yale University; during that time, from 1972 to 1974, the family lived in New Haven, Connecticut. His sister Ikuko is a physician (MD in Osaka University), and his brother Kenichi is a professor of biology at the University of Tokyo. with a break from 1991 to 1993 to attend Harvard Business School. The company was renamed Rakuten, Inc. in 1999, and Mikitani took it public on the JASDAQ in 2000. It started as a small online marketplace with 13 shops and 6 employees, and has since grown into "an e-commerce giant".

In 2010, Mikitani changed Rakuten's focus, as the company began expanding outside Japan, with acquisitions of overseas e-commerce sites including Buy.com of the US (now Rakuten.com), PriceMinister of France, and continuing with companies including Canadian e-book service Kobo (now Rakuten Kobo), US cashback site Ebates (now Rakuten Rewards), and Cyprus-based messaging app Viber (now Rakuten Viber), and minority stakes in online scrapbooking site Pinterest and ride-hailing app Lyft (where Mikitani serves as a board member). Rakuten has business units including travel, e-books, credit cards, online shopping, banking and the Rakuten Golden Eagles baseball team. While the plan was dismissed as "stupid" by Honda president Takanobu Ito in 2010, Mikitani believes that "English is not an advantage anymore – it is a requirement." He considers the Japanese company's fluency in English, with meetings and reporting done in English, to be a strong advantage for the company globally.

Sports team ownership In 1995, after an earthquake in Kobe caused significant damage so that the city could no longer maintain the Vissel Kobe football club, Mikitani was asked to take over operations of the team. He purchased the team later that year through his company Crimson Group.

In 2004, the Japanese Pacific League, amidst financial difficulties, dropped two teams, leading to a player strike. Mikitani was approached by league officials about putting together an expansion team in Sendai, which would be named the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. Mikitani rebuilt, restored and renovated the stadium in Sendai, prior to the team's inaugural season in 2005. The Golden Eagles won the 2013 Japan Series, two years after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Sendai and the Tōhoku region. Tennis property, and Spanish Futbol Club FC Andorra.

Keidanren Mikitani had joined Keidanren, the Japanese business federation in 2004. In June 2011, in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, he quit the federation, announcing his decision via Twitter before sending in his formal letter of resignation, saying it was no longer the same organization he had joined, and he disagreed with its support for continued reliance on the nuclear industry for electricity, and its reluctance to carry out reforms that could help Japan compete internationally. He subsequently pondered setting up a rival body. Mikitani currently serves as the Representative Director of JANE.

Philanthropy

On February 27, 2022, Mikitani announced ¥1 billion ($8.7 million) donation to the Ukrainian government to support it during the Russian invasion.

Honors and awards In 2012, Mikitani was awarded the Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award, one of the school's highest honors. He was also named to Prime Minister Shinzō Abe's Industrial Competitiveness Council.

In 2014, Mikitani was awarded the rank of Chevalier of the National Order of the Legion of Honour by the French government.

In 2017, Mikitani was awarded the Order of Merit of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. and the 2017 Spain-Japan Business Contribution Award by the Spanish Chamber of Commerce.

On 10 April 2024, Mikitani was among the guests invited to the state dinner hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden in honor of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House.