books_book_search
Searches Rakuten Books for printed books by title, author, ISBN, publisher or free-text keyword, returning ISBN, author, publisher, series, table of contents, preview URL, list price and review stats.
LABSCO SUMMARY
The price-comparison tool answers a different question from everything around it, and it is the one worth knowing about.
ichiba_item_search returns listings; ichiba_product_search goes through the Item Price Navi catalogue, which groups the same product across sellers and returns its minimum, maximum and average price with the number of shops carrying it — the vendor names it as the way to answer whether a price is fair. Most of the rest is a hierarchy plus a search over it, and the genre and area lookups exist because those searches want codes rather than names: ichiba_genre_search starts at '0', books_genre_search at '000', kobo_genre_search at '101', and travel_get_area_class returns the prefecture, city and district codes the hotel searches expect.
What it is
A Rakuten API client with 28 tools spanning Ichiba shopping and its genre tree, Rakuten Books across print, CDs, DVDs, foreign books, magazines, games and software, Rakuten Travel, Rakuten Recipe, Rakuten Kobo and Rakuten GORA golf.
What you get
- Ichiba: ichiba_item_search by keyword with a price range, review and price sorting and genre or shop filters, ichiba_item_ranking by genre, period, age and gender, ichiba_product_search over the cross-seller Item Price Navi catalogue with minimum, maximum and average price across sellers, and the ichiba_genre_search and ichiba_tag_search facet lookups.
- Books, one tool per medium: books_total_search across all of them, then books_book_search, books_cd_search, books_dvd_search, books_foreign_book_search, books_magazine_search, books_game_search and books_software_search, with books_genre_search for the hierarchy.
- Travel: travel_simple_hotel_search by area code or coordinates, travel_vacant_hotel_search returning room plans with per-night and total prices and a reserve URL for specific dates, travel_keyword_hotel_search for when the area code is unknown, travel_hotel_detail_search, travel_get_area_class for the code hierarchy, travel_get_hotel_chain_list and travel_hotel_ranking by type.
- Recipes: recipe_category_list over a hierarchy of 43 large, around 540 medium and around 1500 small categories, and recipe_category_ranking with ingredient list, cooking time, cost estimate and the recipe URL.
- Kobo: kobo_ebook_search by keyword, title, author, publisher or genre, and kobo_genre_search from the '101' top level downwards.
- GORA golf: gora_golf_course_search by area, keyword or coordinates, gora_golf_course_detail with hole and par counts, green type, dress code, facilities and base prices, and gora_plan_search for bookable plans on a play date with cart, caddie, lunch and drink inclusions.
Requirements
Rakuten API credentials, supplied as RAKUTEN_APP_ID and RAKUTEN_ACCESS_KEY.
Setup effort
One command plus a key — npm install -g rakuten-mcp, then supply credentials
USE CASES
01
Checking whether a listed price is actually a good one
The cross-seller catalogue groups the same product across shops and returns its price spread, which a single listing search cannot show.
02
Finding a specific book, disc or game in the right catalogue
Each medium has its own tool with its own fields — ISBN, JAN, hardware, target OS — and the cross-category search is the fallback when you do not know which.
03
Finding a hotel with rooms free on your dates
The vacancy search returns the actual plans with per-night and total prices and a reserve URL, which is a different answer from a list of hotels.
04
Deciding what to cook from what is popular
The ranking comes back with the ingredient list, a cooking-time indication and a cost estimate, so the choice can be made before opening the recipe.
05
Booking a round of golf on a specific day
Plans are searched against a play date and carry what is included — cart, caddie, lunch, drinks — which is where the real price difference sits.
06
Browsing an eBook catalogue by genre
The genre tree starts at '101' and drills down, which is how the eBook search gets narrowed to something specific.
28 tools
Counted once with only startup setup. Other versions, modes or optional credentials may expose a different list.
books_cd_search
Searches Rakuten Books for music CDs by title, artist, label or JAN code, returning artist, label, JAN, track list, list price and review stats.
books_dvd_search
Searches Rakuten Books for DVDs and Blu-ray discs by title, performer, label or JAN, returning performer, label, JAN, list price and review stats.
books_foreign_book_search
Searches Rakuten Books for foreign-language books by title, author, ISBN or publisher, with a Japanese-translated title field where one exists.
books_game_search
Searches Rakuten Books for video games by title, hardware such as Nintendo Switch or PlayStation 5, or JAN, returning hardware, label, JAN, list price and review stats.
books_genre_search
Browses the Rakuten Books genre hierarchy. Pass '000' to list top-level genres, or a three-character genre ID to fetch its parents and direct children.
books_magazine_search
Searches Rakuten Books for magazines by title, publisher or JAN, returning publisher, JAN, publication cycle, preview URL and review stats.
books_software_search
Searches Rakuten Books for computer software by title, target OS such as Windows or macOS, or JAN, returning target OS, label, JAN, list price and review stats.
books_total_search
Searches across all Rakuten Books categories at once — books, CDs, DVDs, video games, software, magazines and foreign-language books — for when the target category is unknown.
gora_golf_course_detail
Returns a Rakuten GORA golf course's full detail by ID: postal address, phone, designer, hole and par counts, course distance, green type, dress code, practice, lodging and meal facilities, credit card acceptance, layout map URL, and weekday and holiday base prices.
gora_golf_course_search
Searches Rakuten GORA golf courses by area code, keyword or coordinates, returning name, address, nearest highway interchange, distance from it, evaluation score, image URL and a reservation calendar URL.
gora_plan_search
Searches Rakuten GORA for reservation plans available on a specific play date, returning each course with its plans, price per player, base price, cart, caddie, lunch and drink inclusions, start time zone and points, filterable by area, course, player count or budget.
ichiba_genre_search
Browses the Rakuten Ichiba genre hierarchy. Pass '0' to list top-level genres, or a specific genre ID to fetch its ancestors, siblings and direct children.
ichiba_item_ranking
Returns the Rakuten Ichiba bestseller ranking, overall or filtered by genre, time period, age and gender, with each item's rank, price, review stats and purchase URL.
ichiba_item_search
Searches products on Rakuten Ichiba by keyword. Supports price range filtering, sorting by review count, review average or price, and restricting results to a specific genre or shop. Returns a paginated list of items with prices, review stats, images and direct purchase URLs.
ichiba_product_search
Searches Rakuten's Item Price Navi, the cross-seller catalogue that groups identical products across shops. Returns each product with its minimum, maximum and average price across all sellers and the number of shops carrying it. Filter by maker_code to restrict results to one manufacturer.
ichiba_tag_search
Looks up details for a specific Ichiba tag by tag ID. Tags are facet-style attributes such as size and colour attached to items; the response gives the tag group it belongs to, the tag name and any parent tag.
kobo_ebook_search
Searches the Rakuten Kobo eBook catalogue by keyword, title, author, publisher or genre, returning title, series, author, publisher, price, sale URL, language code, image URL and review stats.
kobo_genre_search
Browses the Rakuten Kobo eBook genre hierarchy from the '101' top level, returning the current genre, its ancestors and its direct children.
recipe_category_list
Returns the full Rakuten Recipe category hierarchy of 43 large, around 540 medium and around 1500 small categories, each with an ID, a name and a URL; medium and small categories carry a parent category ID for assembling the tree.
recipe_category_ranking
Returns the top recipes in a Rakuten Recipe category, with title, ingredient list, cooking time indication, cost estimate, image URLs, author nickname and a direct recipe URL.
travel_get_area_class
Returns the full Rakuten Travel area-code hierarchy — Japan, prefecture, city and district — for use as the area parameters in the hotel search tools.
travel_get_hotel_chain_list
Lists all Rakuten Travel hotel chains with their codes, for filtering or grouping search results by chain.
travel_hotel_detail_search
Returns detailed information for one Rakuten Travel hotel by its hotel number, in the same shape as the search results but with per-axis ratings and detail fields populated.
travel_hotel_ranking
Returns the top-ranked Rakuten Travel hotels, overall or by ranking genre across onsen, ryokan, city, resort, business hotel, pension and public house, with rank, name, area, review stats and information URLs.
travel_keyword_hotel_search
Searches Rakuten Travel hotels by free-text keyword such as a hotel name, area name or landmark, for when the area code is unknown.
travel_simple_hotel_search
Searches Rakuten Travel hotels by area code — Japan to prefecture to city to district — or by latitude and longitude, returning hotel summaries with prices, addresses, review stats and ratings.
travel_vacant_hotel_search
Searches Rakuten Travel for hotels with rooms available on given check-in and check-out dates, returning each hotel with its available plans, per-night and total prices, breakfast flag and reserve URL.
BEFORE YOU INSTALL
What to know first
Tools you get
28 tools when we connected. All are read-only: travel_vacant_hotel_search finds availability without reserving, and gora_plan_search returns golf plans without booking.
Requires
- npx on PATH
- RAKUTEN_APP_ID in your environment
- RAKUTEN_ACCESS_KEY in your environment
Where it runs
All 5 documented clients run the server on your machine.
CONTEXT COST
Moderate Standing cost
Rated by the size of the 28 tool definitions that ride along on every turn, not by how many there are
INSTALLATION
Connect your client
Server setup
TERMINAL
npm install -g rakuten-mcpMCP Clients
Claude Desktop, Cursor, Cline, Continue
JSON
{
"mcpServers": {
"rakuten": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"rakuten-mcp"
],
"env": {
"RAKUTEN_APP_ID": "<YOUR_RAKUTEN_APP_ID>",
"RAKUTEN_ACCESS_KEY": "<YOUR_RAKUTEN_ACCESS_KEY>"
}
}
}
}Claude Code
CLAUDE CODE · TERMINAL
claude mcp add rakuten -e RAKUTEN_APP_ID=<YOUR_RAKUTEN_APP_ID> -e RAKUTEN_ACCESS_KEY=<YOUR_RAKUTEN_ACCESS_KEY> -- npx -y rakuten-mcp
