Hiroshi Mikitani, founder and CEO of Japan’s Rakuten e-commerce company, met with President Zelenskiy

Hiroshi Mikitani, founder and CEO of Japan’s Rakuten e-commerce company, met with President Zelenskiy on Tuesday in Kyiv. Mikitani, the owner of the Viber messaging service, discussed his plans to expand Rakuten’s office in Odesa and to open an office in Kyiv. Often referred to as ‘the Amazon of Japan,’ Rakuten owns Japan’s largest e-commerce site, largest Internet bank and largest credit card company. After the meeting in Kyiv, Mikitani said of Zelenskiy’s IT plan: “All government services in the smartphone are a very real prospect for Ukraine.” Zelenskiy invited Mikitani, to join the National Investment Council, a group of 16 major multinational companies with investments in Ukraine.