{"id":51302,"date":"2025-08-22T15:09:43","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T06:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=51302"},"modified":"2025-08-22T15:09:46","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T06:09:46","slug":"japanese-government-warns-mcdonalds-about-food-waste-after-chaotic-pokemon-tcg-happy-meal-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-government-warns-mcdonalds-about-food-waste-after-chaotic-pokemon-tcg-happy-meal-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese government warns McDonald\u2019s about food waste after chaotic Pok\u00e9mon TCG Happy Meal campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Following a chaotic Happy Meal campaign that resulted in piles of wasted cheeseburgers in plastic bags, the Consumer Affairs Agency of Japan requested McDonald\u2019s to take action regarding the recent issue. According to The Nikkei<\/a>, at a regular press conference held on August 21, Agency representative Natsuko Horii revealed that they have made a direct request to McDonald\u2019s on August 20, calling for the fast-food company to revise their marketing method in a way that would reduce food waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pokemon<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On a related note, McDonald\u2019s recently published an announcement indefinitely postponing a One Piece trading card-themed Happy Meal campaign, as a part of their new measures against food waste and scalping. Since the announcement was posted on the same day as the Consumer Affairs Agency reportedly contacted McDonald\u2019s, it is very likely that the Agency\u2019s request influenced McDonald\u2019s decision to shelve the upcoming campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem of scalping-induced food waste started following the launch of McDonald\u2019s Pok\u00e9mon Trading Card Happy Meal Campaign on August 8 \u2013 but this wasn\u2019t the fast-food company\u2019s first Happy Meal-related controversy this year. As reported by Yahoo!Japan<\/a>, in May, a Chiikawa-themed Happy Meal campaign ended only a day after the launch of its second wave of toys due to excessive scalping, followed by online criticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chiikawa<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Aware that the situation could possibly escalate, on the first day of the Pok\u00e9mon TCG Happy Meal campaign, McDonald\u2019s partnered with mercari, a Japanese online marketplace, in an effort to subdue scalping. In the partnership announcement<\/a>, they also asked their customers to refrain from ordering more food that they can eat and reselling the Pok\u00e9mon cards on the platform (or anywhere else). Unfortunately, the situation quickly went out of hand \u2013 causing McDonald\u2019s to pull the plug on both the Pokemon and the One Piece TCG campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of now, there is no news on when (or if) the One Piece TCG Happy Meal campaign is going to take place, and all of the toys currently sold in McDonald\u2019s Japan\u2019s Happy Meals are from previous campaigns. As McDonald\u2019s explained that they are in the process of implementing stricter measures in order to tackle the scalping and food waste problems, it is yet to be seen when they are going to resume Happy Meal collaborations with big, domestically popular franchises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related Articles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Genshin Impact collaboration causes Japanese restaurant chain to issue a strong warning about wasted food
<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pok\u00e9mon TCG World Championships deck ends up on Japanese flea market app before it even releases
<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

McDonald\u2019s Japan asks people making fanart of their cute anime mascot to \u201cmind their manners and have common sense\u201d
<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Consumer Affairs Agency requested for McDonald’s to revise their marketing method following controversial Pok\u00e9mon Happy Meal campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":51304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,65],"tags":[17,66,70],"class_list":["post-51302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-nongaming-news","tag-japan-related-news","tag-non-gaming-news","tag-pokemon-series"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nJapanese government warns McDonald\u2019s about food waste after chaotic Pok\u00e9mon TCG Happy Meal campaign - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Consumer Affairs Agency requested for McDonald's to revise their marketing method following controversial Pok\u00e9mon Happy Meal campaign.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-government-warns-mcdonalds-about-food-waste-after-chaotic-pokemon-tcg-happy-meal-campaign\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Japanese government warns McDonald\u2019s about food waste after chaotic Pok\u00e9mon TCG Happy Meal campaign - 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