Japanese Pokémon Cards

Yes, all of our Japanese cards come directly from official Japanese sets from The Pokémon Company.

The main differences:

• Set structure: Japanese sets are usually smaller than the English ones.
• Packs: an English pack contains 10 cards. For Japanese packs it depends on the set: a regular set has 5 cards per pack, a special set such as Pokémon Card 151 has 7, and a High Class Pack has 10. Japanese packs contain no basic energy.
• Card back: it is clearly different. The English back has a dark blue border, the Japanese one a gold border. So you can see at a glance which version you are holding.
• Timing: Japanese sets usually appear a few months earlier, with artworks that only reach the West later, and some never come out in English.
• Quality: Japanese cards are known for tighter centering and sturdier card stock, which makes them popular for grading.

Outside Japan usually not. Play! Pokémon decides per region which card languages are allowed; in Europe those are English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. Japanese cards are not among them. At Regional Championships and above you may use cards in a language that is allowed in your own country. For casual play and for collecting, the language does not matter at all.

Most are, but often several months later. Some promos and exclusive sets, however, are only released in Japan.

In practice there is always something in a Japanese box. With a regular Japanese set of 30 packs, collectors almost always end up with at least one Super Rare or higher, plus a couple of Art Rares and several Double Rares per box. You do not have that floor with an English box, where everything is random. The Pokémon Company publishes no official pull rates for any language, so it is nowhere in writing, it is what comes out of thousands of opened boxes. Which card you pull exactly stays down to chance, and a Special Art Rare is never guaranteed.