Japan weighs regulating Pokemon cards amid trading mania

Japan, the home of Pokemon, is beginning to weigh regulating the booming trading card market, as values soaring into the millions of dollars fuel counterfeiting and money laundering.

“Trading cards are no longer simply consumer products,” a ruling Liberal Democratic Party group set up to look into the issue said in a statement. “The market’s rapid expansion and the growing asset value of trading cards have given rise to problems that cannot be ignored.”

The collecting and trading of cards, once a pastime confined to the schoolyard, is now a lucrative global market. Fierce demand has driven up prices to the extent that a single card can be worth millions of dollars. In February, a rare Pokemon card owned by YouTuber Logan Paul was sold for about $16 million.

The domestic market grew by 90% to ¥338 billion ($2.1 billion) in the four years to 2025.

For Japan’s government, the increasing financialization of the trading card market is problematic. The group heard that card values are largely determined by a U.S. company, despite the Japanese origins of the likes of Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh.

Seiji Kihara, the LDP lawmaker chairing the new caucus, said he wants talks to focus on supporting Japan-originated intellectual property and content, while avoiding the kind of strict regulation that hampered growth of the domestic cryptocurrency industry, with the result that it shifted to the U.S.

The group is tasked with formulating policy recommendations on “appropriate rule-making” and industry promotion. The caucus plans to hear from manufacturers and other industry participants as it deepens discussions.