Tokyo Pokemon Center Pre Orders

General Question
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For those who are planning to visit Japan around the release date of a new TCG set and wondering if they can visit local Pokémon Centers to pick up some packs/boxes:

TLDR: you will have to enroll into lotteries in advance and win your chance, which (we’re not sure, but likely that) you can’t without a Japanese phone number. In addition, box purchases must have boxes opened at the counter upon purchase.

Background:

  1. LINE is the most used chat app in Japan similar to WhatsApp in the States and WeChat in China.
  2. matoca is a web service used by several Japanese companies to assign digital number slips to customers lining up at stores.

So here goes: whenever TPC is going to release Pokémon merch in local Pokémon Centers which deemed to be highly sought after such as new TCG booster boxes, they will hold lotteries in advance through matoca which customers have to participate with their LINE accounts. The procedure looks like follows:

  1. Each local Pokémon Center will post on ポケモンセンター スタッフボイス announcing its lottery. For example, this is the post from Mega Tokyo announcing the products to be released next Friday which are included in the lottery. The posts are usually made a week before the release date but may be earlier in some cases.
  2. The announcement posts will include links to the lotteries. Customers must open the links through LINE and follow the instructions inside to participate in the lottery. Although each Pokémon Center makes its own announcement, all stores hold the same lottery and customers can only select one store from the lottery.
  3. Lottery results will be announced a few days before the release date, and winners will receive the number tickets they need to enter Pokémon Center. DO NOT stamp the ticket (click on the ticket so that it says “used”) in advance!
  4. Go to the Pokémon Center selected in the lottery and follow the staff’s instructions at the entrance to stamp the ticket and proceed with your purchase.

The problem with the process is that we don’t know if matoca will check the number you associated with your LINE account and stop you from proceeding with the lottery process if your phone number isn’t from Japan. Please let us know if anyone tried that!

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