{"id":74644,"date":"2026-08-15T04:26:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T04:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/74644\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T04:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T04:26:16","slug":"japan-considers-crackdown-on-pokemon-cards-as-skyrocketing-interest-sparks-crime-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/74644\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan considers crackdown on Pok\u00e9mon cards as ‘skyrocketing’ interest sparks crime fears"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pok\u00e9mon cards have become a multi-billion-dollar unregulated industry, and its homeland is now considering clamping down.<\/p>\n

The Japanese government has set up a taskforce to look at regulating the trading card market, as soaring prices raise concerns about scalping, counterfeiting and money laundering.<\/p>\n

Watanabe Sho from Hareruya2, a speciality card store in Tokyo, has watched interest in the 30-year-old game “skyrocket” in the past five to six years.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Watanabe Sho holds out a Grade B Pikachu card. (ABC: Natalie Whiting)<\/p>\n

“To give a recent example [from the store], a well-preserved Pikachu card from the very first booster pack was sold for about 10 million yen ($89,000),” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The six-level store attracts both local and international interest \u2014 with many tourists keen to purchase Japanese-language cards.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Pok\u00e9mon cards \u2014 particularly rare ones \u2014 have been surging in value. (ABC: Natalie Whiting)<\/p>\n

But the surging prices are putting many cards out of reach for fans.<\/p>\n

“I think the expensive cards are all pretty ridiculous,” said 20-year-old June, who was visiting the store during a holiday from America.<\/p>\n

“I wish they were cheaper because I want to collect all of them.”<\/p>\n

The most expensive collectables are often early or special edition cards, but new release sets are also being snapped up and resold at higher prices.<\/p>\n

“The new set that just came out in Japan a few weeks ago is already $200 for a box,” said 18-year-old Noble, another customer in the store.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

June and Noble on their visit to speciality card store Hareruya2 in Tokyo. (ABC: Natalie Whiting)<\/p>\n

American YouTuber Logan Paul set a record this year when he sold an ultra-rare card for $22.6 million.<\/p>\n

The card was a Pikachu Illustrator, one of only 40 issued in 1998, and the only one given a grade of 10 \u2014 meaning it was in near-perfect condition.<\/p>\n

He had purchased it four years earlier for $7.5 million.<\/p>\n

People risking ‘financial ruin’ for Pok\u00e9mon cards<\/p>\n

The incredible gains on rare cards have created an alternative asset class, but the market can be volatile and speculative.<\/p>\n

Lawyer Fukui Kensaku, from Kotto Dori Law Office, said there was “reckless speculation” in the market, and some “ordinary people” were risking “financial ruin”.<\/p>\n

“Another issue is that it’s prone to attracting crimes like fraud and theft when prices are skyrocketing like this in a bubble-like manner,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Grade 9 Pok\u00e9mon cards valued at \u00a5500,000 \u2014 roughly $4,440. (ABC: Natalie Whiting)<\/p>\n

He pointed to people swapping out cards and repackaging, creating counterfeits, or even straight theft of valuable cards.<\/p>\n

While Logan Paul has made plenty in the trade, he also fell victim to a box of fake cards, which cost him almost $5 million.<\/p>\n

Mr Fukui said there was also a risk of the trade being “exploited for illicit overseas money transfers, such as money laundering”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Classic characters featured on a Pok\u00e9mon card deck set. (ABC: Natalie Whiting)<\/p>\n

Government eyes regulation \u2014 but there are ‘hurdles’<\/p>\n

The Japanese government has launched a parliamentary group to look at the issues created in the trading card market, for games like Pok\u00e9mon and Yu-Gi-Oh!<\/p>\n

It will consider ways to prevent illegal resales and counterfeiting, including authentication methods and improving technology to try to detect fakes.<\/p>\n

But its chair, Kihara Seiji, has already warned that the group “must not strengthen regulations to the point of destroying the market”.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Pok\u00e9mon cards are valued based on their grading levels. (ABC: Natalie Whiting)<\/p>\n

Mr Fukui said while restrictions on reselling cards could be legally enforced in some situations, he did not think regulation alone was the answer.<\/p>\n

“If we were to pursue legal regulation alone, the first hurdle would be that even if a law were enacted, it would only apply within Japan,” he said.<\/p>\n

He believed the parliamentary group would aim to work with industry and resale platforms to take a more “comprehensive” approach, noting international cooperation would be essential.<\/p>\n

“The main focus is on ensuring that trading cards become something everyone can enjoy more \u2014 in other words, fostering the healthy development of the market.”<\/p>\n

The game plays on<\/p>\n

At Hareruya2, Watanabe Sho was worried some fans might be “drifting away” from Pok\u00e9mon because certain cards were now out of reach.<\/p>\n

\"Back<\/p>\n

A Pok\u00e9mon store owner says skyrocketing prices have created a “gloomy atmosphere” among fans. (ABC: Natalie Whiting)<\/p>\n

“I think the saddest thing is when people who simply want to buy something \u2026 can’t actually buy it,” he said.<\/p>\n

The Pok\u00e9mon Company is trying to combat scalpers with a lottery system, where customers need to apply using official Japanese IDs for some special releases.<\/p>\n

“If we can create a situation where everyone can buy at least a little bit, I think this current gloomy atmosphere will start to fade,” Watanabe Sho said.<\/p>\n

And in the game of Pok\u00e9mon itself, a more expensive card was not necessarily a better card, so it remained an even playing field.<\/p>\n

“As long as the effects in the game are the same, that’s good enough for me,” 26-year-old player Inomata Shohei told the ABC, during a Pok\u00e9mon battle.<\/p>\n

“But the dedication of the collectors is impressive.”<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Fans of the game continue to play on. (ABC: Natalie Whiting)<\/p>\n

His opponent in the battle, 21-year-old Kamatake Masamichi, described himself as both a player and a collector.<\/p>\n

“Whether you enjoy the art or the gameplay, I reckon, at the end of the day, we’re all enjoying Pok\u00e9mon cards equally,” he said.<\/p>\n

And while he described some of the resale prices as “crazy”, he said there was always the hope that you could buy a regular pack and discover a rare card.<\/p>\n

“It’s something to dream about,” he said.\"Person<\/p>\n

A deck of Pikachu cards being shuffled at a trading card session. (ABC: Natalie Whiting)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pok\u00e9mon cards have become a multi-billion-dollar unregulated industry, and its homeland is now considering clamping down. The Japanese…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48193,48195,48196,3456,5384,8,48198,48199,25938,33,40644,48194,48197,29304,48192],"class_list":["post-74644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-card-grading","tag-collectibles","tag-collector-cards","tag-crime","tag-fraud","tag-japan","tag-japanese-pokemon-cards","tag-japanese-taskforce","tag-money-laundering","tag-nihon","tag-pokemon-cards","tag-pokemon-cards-japan","tag-pokemon-trading-cards","tag-scalping","tag-trading-cards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}