A single Pokémon card sold for $16m. Now Japan is moving to regulate the market.

YouTuber and WWE wrestler Logan Paul holds up a Pokémon card during the Fanatics Flag Football Classic 2026 match against Team USA at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, California, in March. [Getty Images]

Once traded casually on school playgrounds, Pokémon cards have become a serious investment asset. Demand has surged to the point where a single rare card can fetch millions of dollars, cementing the hobby's status as an alternative investment. As Pokémon cards rapidly evolve from collectibles into financial assets, the Japanese government has begun examining how to regulate the market.

Bloomberg reported Friday that Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has formed a lawmakers' group to discuss regulatory measures for the trading card market and is working to develop policy. The move comes as Pokémon card prices have soared into the millions of dollars, giving rise to problems including counterfeiting and money laundering.

In a statement, the LDP said "trading cards are no longer a simple consumer product," adding that "the market's rapid growth and the rising asset value of cards have created problems that can no longer be ignored."

The LDP lawmakers' group plans to gather input from manufacturers and industry stakeholders before drafting a policy recommendation outlining an "appropriate regulatory framework" alongside measures to foster the industry.

LDP lawmaker Kihara Seiji said discussions would focus on nurturing Japan's intellectual property and content industries, but cautioned against overreach. "We will not repeat the mistake of excessive regulation that cost Japan its domestic cryptocurrency industry to the United States," he said.

A standard pack of five to ten Pokémon cards typically sells for around 1,000 won, but rare cards now change hands for anywhere from tens of thousands to several million won, making them a popular vehicle for alternative investment and personal wealth management.

In Japan, the problem has already surfaced at the retail level, with Seven-Eleven employees found to have diverted Pokémon cards and other popular anime and game character products for resale at a premium.

According to Kyodo News and other outlets on Thursday, Seven-Eleven Japan recently sent a warning to its franchises nationwide, alerting them that unauthorized resale of popular character products had become widespread at some stores. Cases were confirmed in which store owners or employees had set aside Pokémon cards and other products before their official release and later sold them at a markup on online secondhand marketplaces. The scheme exploited the scarcity of limited-edition and popular character items, which routinely sell out immediately after launch.

The rarer the card, the higher the price climbs. Japan's trading card market was valued at 338 billion yen ($2.06 billion) last year, representing 90% growth over the past four years.

In February, a rare Pokémon card from the collection of YouTuber and WWE wrestler Logan Paul sold for approximately $16 million.

Bloomberg said the Japanese government is particularly concerned about trading cards increasingly being treated like financial assets, and noted that another issue raised was that although globally popular card games such as Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! originated in Japan, the value of the cards is in effect determined by a single American grading and rating company.

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