Catalog House’s Tsuhan Seikatsu mail-order business announced that it would close its storefront on Rakuten Ichiba. It cited the consistency of the company’s messaging with its corporate philosophy as the reason for the withdrawal.
On 18 August, Tsuhan Seikatsu, operated by Catalog House, announced that it would close its storefront on Rakuten Ichiba. The company explained that wording featured on the Tsuhan Seikatsu catalog cover, including “We can shop because Article 9 of the Constitution exists,” was incompatible with its corporate philosophy and with reports that Rakuten Group was supporting the deployment and promoting the domestic production of attack drones.
On the same day, Rakuten Group announced that it had partnered with German defense technology company Helsing and would support the delivery of the HX-2 attack drone to the Ministry of Defense. The HX-2 can be mass-produced and is capable of attacking military targets from a certain distance.
The Ministry of Defense plans to conduct a demonstration test of the HX-2 by the end of September and consider its deployment by the Ground Self-Defense Force. According to Reuters, Helsing is a startup that expanded into drone development following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In response to inquiries, Rakuten Group said that innovation in the defense industry is important to strengthening Japan’s defense capabilities, and commented that it wanted to serve as a link between startups and advanced technologies and government needs.