The operator of Rakuten, Japan's largest online shopping mall, has become the first significant Japanese company to ordain English as the official in-house language, including among local staff.

Hiroshi Mikitani, Rakuten chief executive, led the way yesterday by conducting a press conference spelling out the company's global ambitions almost entirely in English.

Given Rakuten's goal of becoming "the number one internet services company in the world", Mr Mikitani said, "all employees need to communicate in English" by the end of 2012.

It used to be said that good English speakers were denied senior positions at Japanese companies for fear they would expose the linguistic failures of the top brass.

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