Any know if Pokemon is available in Israel? Headed there next month and would love to see some pokemon cards in written in hebrew or arabic…
I found a somewhat related post on reddit which will definitely help you.
Wed 12, 2017 20:03:24 GMT 2 Quuador said:
How many countries have released cards and in what language?
Countries I don’t know, but these are the available languages in the Pokémon TCG:
Japanese
English
Dutch
German
French
Italian
Spanish (Spain / Latin America)
Portuguese (Portugal / Brazil)
(South) Korean
Traditional Chinese
Russian
Polish
Almost all sets are released in English and/or Japanese. German, French, and Italian are pretty common as well for almost all sets, and Spanish (both from Spain and Latin America) for most of the earliest and newest sets (not so much for the EX era). The earlier Portuguese cards were from Portugal; the newer Portuguese cards are from Brazil. Korean usually has some odd sets which are either the same as the Japanese, or a mix of multiple sets, and quite a few promos. Chinese only has two sets: Base and EX Legend Maker; as well as from a Jungle Pikachu from the Pikachu World Collection 2000 set, some POP4 promos and the EX Legend Maker Plusle and Minun Deck. Dutch has Base, Jungle and Fossil; as well as a few WotC promos. Polish only has two sets: Diamond & Pearl and Mysterious Treasures, as well as a Pikachu from the Pikachu World Collection 2010 set. And Russian started releasing sets since XY (although it skipped some, like XY Generations and Evolutions; they will soon release some SM Decks and sets though).
Do people from countries who never printed cards participate in playing or collecting?
Cards printed in the UK or Australia are also English (Base unlimited edition with ©1999-2000 are printed in the UK - they are known as the UK 4th print);
Cards printed in The Netherlands these days are English (although they were Dutch in 1999-2000);
Cards printed in Belgium are usually English or French (I got a French McDonald’s promo from Belgium);
Cards printed in Switzerland are usually German (I got a German McDonald’s promo from Switzerland, and I know an exclusive promo from Switzerland that is English).
Cards printed in Sweden are usually English (I got a promo from Sweden which is in English);
Cards printed in India are English (in 2004 Funskool got the official Pokémon TCG license to print their own Pokémon cards). They look nothing like the regular TCG cards (both front nor back), but they are official TCG cards from India (in English). Halve their artworks are form the Base Set (with different background); and the other halve with exclusive artwork. Here are some example pictures.
Most cards printed in Poland are in English (excluding the two sets mentioned earlier) (I got an English McDonald’s promo from Poland).
etc. etc.
And yes, I know a lot of people from countries that don’t have their own language printed that collect Pokémon TCG cards (and still do).
How big are the playing vs collecting communities in these other languages/countries?
God question, which I honestly don’t know. I don’t play the Pokémon TCG myself, so I can’t say much about it. I do know that with the recent release of XY Evolutions, four STAFF cards were printed (Charizard, Machamp, Gyarados and Mewtwo) for supervisors of Pokémon TCG events, and these cards were also printed in German, French, Italian and Spanish, which means those countries still have TCG events as well. There was also a Double Colorless Energy that was printed as promo with Top 16, Champion, etc. which was also available with Oceania and Latin American stamps, so Latin America and Australia also still have Pokémon TCG championships.
Greetz,
Quuador
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I will say I grew up in Puerto Rico and the island’s main language in Spanish. Never in my life I saw Spanish Pokémon cards lol. They were all in the English versions; same for video games and other related products. Again, I grew up in the 90’s and it was very Americanized… then hurricane banme occurred and everything changed… maybe they have them now in Spanish.
In terms of a local player scene there is supposedly a tiny one in Israel as well. Currently the #4 player in the “Oceania” region is Israeli, which being #4 currently will grant him some all expense international travel. (The Asian Pokemon scene is overall small/nonexistent in most of Asia with larger communities in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and NZ and tiny communities in Israel, the UAE, and the Philippines). But yea, said Israeli community uses English cards from what I know
Funny to see my answers on reddit being linked here. 
Usually it’s the other way around, that my E4 articles/posts are linked on reddit. 
Ah, I remember saying this back then… Too bad it turned out to be false information, since no new Russian cards have been released… Then again, my Russian contact doesn’t respond anymore (nor does my South Korean contact 
), so it’s perhaps for the better no more Russian cards are released.
PS / off-topic: If anyone lives or knows someone from South Korea who could help me out, I would greatly appreciate it. Loads of Korean Pikachus have been released lately…
Greetz,
Quuador
I have a few nice customers in Israel, there is some buyers and traders there definitely.
Not sure where to go though.