On March 1 2010, Hiroshi Mikitani, flamboyant chief executive of Rakuten, the leading Japanese ecommerce company, delivered startling news to the 7,000 Japanese staff gathered for his weekly address and the 3,000 overseas employees watching by video. From now on, he said, everything at Rakuten, from meetings to the canteen menus, would be in English. Staff had two years to get their English up to scratch. Anyone who did not reach the expected level in that time would be demoted. Mr Mikitani gave the programme the slightly awkward title “Englishnization”. Leading the English charge would be Takashi Katsuragi. In Rakuten’s Tokyo headquarters, Mr Katsuragi reflects on the seven years since he was given the job of leading the company to English competence — and on what the company got wrong and, eventually, right. In the immediate aftermath of Mr Mikitani’s announcement staff were shocked, Mr Katsuragi said. They worked in Japanese. All their documents were in Japanese. How would they cope with doing everything in English?

What happens to Rakuten if the Englishnization program fails?