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The story
A report from ITmedia — that Rakuten set up an inquiry form in response to coverage of its “attack drone” but has no plans to actually reply — drew a wave of reactions on 5ch’s Newsplus (Breaking News+) board.
Threads were filled with jokes worrying about the fallout for the Rakuten Eagles and Rakuten Card, while the discussion also branched out into debates over fostering domestic drone technology and assessments of Mikitani’s business judgment.
Rakuten Sets Up Inquiry Form Over “Attack Drone” Report — But Won’t Reply – ITmedia NEWS –
09:40 AM, August 19, 2026
By Yuka Okada [ITmedia]
Source: itmedia.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
They'll probably just rename it the Rakuten Drones.
What about Vissel Kobe? (Rakuten's soccer club)
They probably won't even listen lol
It's basically a spittoon lol (somewhere to spit complaints into and forget)
They probably won't even look at it lol
That's the correct move.
I wish the bear-protection crowd would do the same.
Can't cave to complainers.
The "6/4 Ra-tian'anmen Incident"! (a pun blending Rakuten with Tiananmen)
I'll get attacked lol
Sounds like they'll just send you a Rakuten Card by drone without even asking
The people against it must really want us stuck using Chinese-made ones.
Chinese drones win on market share, usability, and precision.
Face reality.
If Rakuten licenses the tech and manufactures them, the parts will probably still be Chinese-made, right? Turning that into defense equipment is scary.
Japan doesn't need that kind of technology.
I don't even want to let them use electricity.
From every angle, he's clearly the type who runs wild on nothing but vanity and stubborn pride.
Cronyism with the government is about as sure a bet as it gets.
Background and Key Points
Rakuten’s core business runs on a “points economy” — its e‑commerce mall, credit card, mobile carrier, Rakuten Card, and pro sports clubs (the Eagles baseball team, Vissel Kobe soccer) all feed into a single loyalty ecosystem. CEO Hiroshi Mikitani is a prominent, sometimes polarizing figure in Japanese business, having pushed the company into risky bets before, most notably its money-losing mobile carrier venture, which makes his judgment a recurring subject of public second-guessing. The “attack drone” report itself comes from ITmedia, a mainstream Japanese tech-news outlet, and describes Rakuten opening a public inquiry form after backlash over drone-related coverage — while making clear the company has no intention of actually responding to what comes in through it. 5ch’s Newsplus board is the site’s general breaking-news forum, known for fast, joke-heavy reactions rather than sustained policy debate.
The thread didn’t converge on outrage at Rakuten so much as split over what the inquiry form itself signifies. Some posters read “we won’t reply” as a shrewd, almost admirable move — a way to let people vent without being obligated to engage, comparing it favorably to how other companies fold under pressure campaigns. Others treated it as confirmation that the whole gesture is theater. A separate, smaller fault line opened over the drone technology angle itself: whether Japan pursuing domestic drone development is worthwhile at all, given how thoroughly Chinese manufacturers already dominate the consumer and prosumer market on cost and usability.
What’s easy to miss reading this from outside Japan is that none of the joking about the Eagles or Vissel Kobe reflects any real corporate connection to the drone story — it’s pure gallows humor riffing on the Rakuten brand umbrella, not evidence the sports properties are actually implicated.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Newsplus) thread “Rakuten Sets Up Inquiry Form Over “Attack Drone” Report — “We Won’t Reply” <…"noindex,nofollow" />.”
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