The Rakuten screenshot included in the first set of examples looks a bit out of place to me. It's a pretty normal, modern, flat-design shopping website? Amazon similarly features a big colorful carousel and a bunch of different images all competing for attention. (Well, if you visit Amazon today you'll get a more consistent-looking Black Friday takeover.)
The only thing that really stands out to me about Rakuten is that the Japanese UI strings are bit longer and more visually dense than the English ones. But that's a far cry from Yahoo Japan's early 2000s aesthetic.
The only thing that really stands out to me about Rakuten is that the Japanese UI strings are bit longer and more visually dense than the English ones. But that's a far cry from Yahoo Japan's early 2000s aesthetic.