I am curious about who originally printed the Japanese Pokemon cards and who prints them to this day, but the information online is very contradicting.
If we look on Bulbapedia we can see
"Media Factory, Inc. (Japanese: 株式会社メディアファクトリー Kabushiki gaisha Media Factory) was a Japanese publisher and distributor for the Pokémon franchise from 1996 until 2011 when it was purchased by Kadokawa Corporation. In 2013, it was merged and became a brand of Kadokawa Corporation.
The company was the first distributor of the Pokémon Trading Card Game in Japan from 1996 until The Pokémon Company took over in 2006. Songs and albums from the Pokémon anime and the games were distributed under the Pikachu Records record label from 1997 to 2012. Following Media Factory’s acquisition, game soundtracks as well as official Japanese strategy guides previously published by Media Factory are now published by OVERLAP, while anime songs and albums are now distributed by Sony Music"
I can’t tell if they are saying that Media Factory was just a distributor or if they actually printed the cards themselves. The dates are also very confusing.
Does anybody know who originally printed the vintage cards? Was it the Pokemon Company or a seperate entity? When did Pokemon take over the printing themselves?
Any information helps. Thanks!