Pokemon might soon require government ID in Japan to prevent TCG scalping

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As someone who goes to several concerts a month, I'm no stranger to the woes of ticket scalpers. Yet, for as irritating as the practice is in the music world, it pales to the scalping within popular trading card games such as Pokemon or Magic the Gathering. In fact, it's becoming so extreme for pocket monsters, The Pokemon Company is looking into age verification to help soothe the market.

The company revealed as much in a statement on the official Japanese site for the Pokemon TCG. The idea is to use My Number Cards, a standardized form of government ID in Japan, as a way to "provide all customers with fair and safe opportunities" for certain purchases through the official store, per a translation from Automaton.

Users will be asked for their identification alongside their account on the site, before participating further. These cards are available to the general public, but they aren't mandatory, and the company encourages any Pokemon fans without one to apply as soon as possible, lest they be locked out of buying whatever drop they like.

Latest Videos From McDonald’s Japan apologizes over rampant resale of Pokemon happy meal set cards - YouTube Watch On

Certain items sold, including those through lotteries, will use this system, as will some official events and tournaments in Japan. The overall extent isn't specified, but it's made clear no data associated with the My Number Card will be used or stored beyond personal verification.

This will start coming in sometime in August 2026. Specific reasons aren't given, but the likelihood is to defend against scalping. The Pokemon TCG has always had a relatively competitive market due to the franchise's enormous popularity, but it's gotten considerably worse this decade. There's been a surge in speculative purchasing, due at least in part to online personalities like Logan Paul taking a sudden, lasting interest in the money-driven side of the hobby.

Meanwhile, you have limited edition promo cards with McDonald's and the Natural History Museum that always bring a certain amount of shameless resellers. Reselling of the latter became so widespread, McDonald's Japan was forced to comment, as you can see above. The prevalence of bots in online purchasing compounds all these problems, and this ID system will hopefully curb at least some of it.

While you're here, be sure to take a look at our roundup of the best card games of 2026.

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Anthony McGlynnContributing Writer

Anthony is an Irish entertainment and games journalist, now based in Glasgow. He previously served as Senior Anime Writer at Dexerto and News Editor at The Digital Fix, on top of providing work for Variety, IGN, Den of Geek, PC Gamer, and many more. Besides Studio Ghibli, horror movies, and The Muppets, he enjoys action-RPGs, heavy metal, and pro-wrestling. He interviewed Animal once, not that he won’t stop going on about it or anything.

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