AI Rakuten Product Images

Rakuten Ichiba's product image guideline (商品画像登録ガイドライン) applies to two kinds of image: the first product image (第1商品画像), which shoppers see in search, rankings and on the product page, and the SKU images that show each variation. On those images, text may cover no more than 20% of the image, there may be no border, and the background must be plain white (単色白背景) or a photographic background (写真背景). Animated GIFs may not be used for them, and Rakuten recommends square images of 700 by 700 pixels or more.

Rakuten's own seller column calls oversized text and banners on the main image one of the most common violations, and lists other usual failures: solid fills in colors other than white, images that mislead about the product's size against the background, band-shaped or L-shaped lines that count as borders, and AI-generated images with unnatural cutouts or parts merged together. Breaking the guideline counts toward a shop's violation points (違反点数) under the rules Rakuten made mandatory in 2018. The images after the first, and the product description, are outside the guideline, which is where text-heavy content belongs.

We last checked the guideline in October 2026 against Rakuten's RMS Service Square and trade coverage, linked at the bottom of this page. The full rulebook, with worked examples, is in 店舗運営Navi inside RMS, which needs a shop login and is the final word.

The simplest first image that passes has no text at all: the product on plain white, centered in a square, with a soft natural shadow. Attach your product photo to Mango 3 and write: "Keep the product exactly as in the photo. Replace the background with plain white, square frame, the product centered with even margins, a soft shadow under it, no text, no border." A first image with nothing on it has nothing to count toward the 20%.

A photographic background is the other option, and it suits products that sell on mood, such as food, tableware and interior goods. Describe a real place with real light: "On a hinoki wood counter by a window, soft morning light, 50mm." What the guideline rules out is a background made to grab attention rather than to look real: flat color fills other than white, digital illustration backgrounds and geometric patterns. A generated scene sits close to that line, so only use one on the first image when it reads as a real photograph at a glance, and keep the size of the product true against the scene.

If you do put text on the first image, keep it small and count all of it. Treat every word as text, including your logo, a campaign line such as 送料無料, and any badge with words on it, and stay well under 20% of the image. And no frames: Rakuten counts L-shaped lines and bands along an edge as borders, not just a box around all four sides.

• Plain white or a real-looking photo background.
• No flat color fills, illustrated backdrops or patterns.
• Text, logos and badges together under 20%.
• No borders, bands or L-shaped lines.
• Square, 700 by 700 pixels or more.
• No animated GIF on the first or SKU images.

Rakuten sales such as 楽天スーパーSALE and お買い物マラソン are when the guideline gets broken, because the obvious move is to stamp a discount, a points offer and free shipping across the first image. Rakuten's own column names oversized text and banners on the main image as common failures. Keep the first image clean through the event and move the sale message to the images after it, the description and your event banners.

Mage makes the artwork for those banners. Generate the scene with an empty area for the headline, such as "the gift box from the reference on red and gold paper, studio light, wide frame, the left half empty", and set the Japanese copy yourself in your design tool, so every character, price and date is exactly right. The AI poster generator page covers layouts built around a headline.

Everything after the first image is yours to design, and a Rakuten page has room for a lot. Plan it as a scroll of images that each answer one question: what the product looks like in use, its size in centimeters against something familiar, the material up close, what comes in the box, how it is wrapped for a gift, and what each SKU looks like side by side. Text can be as dense as the question needs here, because the guideline does not apply.

Make the pictures in Mage and add the words afterwards. Guava 2 Pro gives photographic scenes and close-ups; Mango 3 combines up to 10 references, so the product, your real gift wrapping and a location go into one image. In Claude, Codex or Cursor, the Product Photoshoot skill on the Mage skills page shoots one product in up to ten modes, including a hero banner and a lifestyle scene, with the label and colors locked to your photo.

Leave the Japanese copy out of the generated image. An image model can misdraw Japanese characters, and a wrong kanji in a size chart or a price is worse than no text at all. Generate the picture with clear space, then set the type in the tool you already use for your banners.

Before you register an image, look at it the way Rakuten's reviewers will. Its column warns that AI images sometimes come out with unnatural cutouts or parts merged together, so check where the product meets the background, where a hand meets a handle, and where a lid meets a bottle. If one area went wrong, fix it with Inpaint instead of regenerating the whole image, then upscale with the Image Enhancer and upload the file to R-Cabinet, the shop's image folder.

• No generated Japanese text: set copy yourself.
• Check edges, hands and joins for merged parts.
• Keep the product true to size against the scene.
• Fix one area with Inpaint, then upscale last.