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Hiroshi Mikitani Trivia Questions

How much do you really know about Hiroshi Mikitani? Below are 8 true or false statements. Click each one to reveal the answer and explanation.

1.

Mikitani has publicly stated that he wants to buy Twitter and merge it with Rakuten.

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Easy
✗ FALSE

This is made up. Mikitani never made such a bid; Elon Musk famously bought Twitter in 2022, not Mikitani.

2.

Mikitani requires all Rakuten employees to speak English as the company's official internal language.

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Medium
✓ TRUE

In 2010, Mikitani mandated English-only internal communication, a controversial move in Japan aimed at global expansion.

3.

Mikitani was an Olympic torchbearer for the 2020 Tokyo Games.

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Medium
✓ TRUE

He carried the Olympic torch in 2021 as a prominent Japanese business figure, though the event was delayed by COVID-19.

4.

Mikitani owns a majority stake in the Boston Celtics basketball team.

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Medium
✗ FALSE

This is false; Mikitani has no stake in the Celtics. He did buy a minority share of the MLB's Chicago Cubs in 2016.

5.

Hiroshi Mikitani is the founder and CEO of Rakuten, Japan's largest e-commerce company.

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Medium
✓ TRUE

Mikitani founded Rakuten in 1997 and built it into a massive online marketplace, often called 'the Amazon of Japan.'

6.

Mikitani’s father was a prominent economist who influenced Japan's post-war trade policies.

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Hard
✓ TRUE

His father, Masatoshi Mikitani, was a respected economist and trade policy advisor, which shaped Hiroshi's global business outlook.

7.

Mikitani is a descendant of the Tokugawa shogun family.

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Hard
✗ FALSE

No credible evidence supports this. Mikitani's father was an economist, and his background is in business, not feudal aristocracy.

8.

Mikitani once played professional baseball for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan.

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Hard
✗ FALSE

This is false; Mikitani was a Harvard MBA and banker, not a pro athlete. His son, however, briefly played baseball in the US.

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