Engineering decisions are made by people that should have no saying in such matters. People are promoted based on connections instead of actual contributions.

Rakuten leadership figures are sorely lacking both at vision and execution. The first thing they should do ASAP is replacing most middle management and then working on improving the overall company engineering culture.

We would work better if we were allowed to do what's best for the stakeholders, instead of being forced to follow directions coming from a leadership team that has proved time and time again of not knowing what they are talking about.

Allow collaboration between teams instead of forcing teams to reinvent the wheel over and over. Require accountability and post-mortem improvements. Replace most middle management by promoting based on actual contributions, not based on connections. Keep the egos of leadership figures in check.