{"id":66954,"date":"2026-05-21T16:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T07:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=66954"},"modified":"2026-05-21T17:08:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T08:08:49","slug":"the-pokemon-company-is-considering-authentication-via-government-issued-ids-to-battle-tcg-scalping-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-pokemon-company-is-considering-authentication-via-government-issued-ids-to-battle-tcg-scalping-in-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"The\u00a0Pok\u00e9mon\u00a0Company is considering\u00a0authentication\u00a0via government-issued IDs\u00a0to battle TCG scalping in Japan\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Pok\u00e9mon Company has published a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pokemon-card.com\/info\/005450.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">statement<\/a>&nbsp;via the official Japanese portal of the&nbsp;<strong>Pok\u00e9mon&nbsp;TCG&nbsp;Trainers Website&nbsp;<\/strong>announcing&nbsp;that&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;considering the introduction of a robust identity verification system. The system would&nbsp;rely on&nbsp;My Number&nbsp;Cards, which are Japan\u2019s government issued ID cards&nbsp;(also serving as Social Security Number cards).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This comes as part of the company\u2019s efforts to&nbsp;\u201cprovide all customers with fair and safe opportunities\u201d&nbsp;to purchase TCG-related&nbsp;products and participate in&nbsp;official&nbsp;events, meaning it\u2019s likely&nbsp;another measure against the rampant issue of&nbsp;Pok\u00e9mon&nbsp;card&nbsp;scalping&nbsp;and possibly a precaution against cheating via \u201cstand-ins\u201d at tournaments&nbsp;(which <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-pokemon-company-issues-warning-to-tcg-players-in-japan-following-harassment-of-staff-and-judges\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">became an issue<\/a> during the 2026 Pok\u00e9mon Yokohama Champions League).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to The Pok\u00e9mon Company, the system will apply to&nbsp;priority&nbsp;product lotteries,&nbsp;sales&nbsp;of&nbsp;certain&nbsp;products on&nbsp;Pok\u00e9mon&nbsp;Center Online, as well as participation in select official tournaments and events held&nbsp;within&nbsp;Japan.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for how this will work, the company intends to\u00a0have users\u00a0authenticate their Trainer Club accounts by scanning their My Number Cards via smartphone\u00a0using an external service. It promises not to\u00a0acquire\u00a0or store\u00a0people&#8217;s\u00a0personal ID numbers in the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The verification system is being considered for introduction as early as August 2026. Given that&nbsp;it\u2019s&nbsp;not yet obligatory to own a My Number Card in Japan, the Pok\u00e9mon Company has encouraged users who&nbsp;don\u2019t&nbsp;have one to&nbsp;start&nbsp;the application process as soon as possible.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Starting August 2026, The Pok\u00e9mon Company is considering requiring identity verification for access to certain products and events in Japan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":49973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17,70],"class_list":["post-66954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news","tag-pokemon-series"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The\u00a0Pok\u00e9mon\u00a0Company is considering\u00a0authentication\u00a0via government-issued IDs\u00a0to battle TCG scalping in Japan\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Starting August 2026, The Pok\u00e9mon Company is considering requiring identity verification for access to certain products and events in Japan.\" \/>\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\/the-pokemon-company-is-considering-authentication-via-government-issued-ids-to-battle-tcg-scalping-in-japan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The\u00a0Pok\u00e9mon\u00a0Company is considering\u00a0authentication\u00a0via government-issued IDs\u00a0to battle TCG scalping in Japan\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Starting August 2026, The Pok\u00e9mon Company is considering requiring identity verification for access to certain products and events in Japan.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-pokemon-company-is-considering-authentication-via-government-issued-ids-to-battle-tcg-scalping-in-japan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-21T07:48:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-21T08:08:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250711-49970-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"418\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The\u00a0Pok\u00e9mon\u00a0Company is considering\u00a0authentication\u00a0via government-issued IDs\u00a0to battle TCG scalping in Japan\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"Starting August 2026, The Pok\u00e9mon Company is considering requiring identity verification for access to certain products and events in Japan.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-pokemon-company-is-considering-authentication-via-government-issued-ids-to-battle-tcg-scalping-in-japan\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The\u00a0Pok\u00e9mon\u00a0Company is considering\u00a0authentication\u00a0via government-issued IDs\u00a0to battle TCG scalping in Japan\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Starting August 2026, The Pok\u00e9mon Company is considering requiring identity verification for access to certain products and events in Japan.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-pokemon-company-is-considering-authentication-via-government-issued-ids-to-battle-tcg-scalping-in-japan\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2026-05-21T07:48:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-05-21T08:08:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":696,"height":418,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250711-49970-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Amber V","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Amber V","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-pokemon-company-is-considering-authentication-via-government-issued-ids-to-battle-tcg-scalping-in-japan\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-pokemon-company-is-considering-authentication-via-government-issued-ids-to-battle-tcg-scalping-in-japan\/"},"author":{"name":"Amber V","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fdc6517a00e35b6917ffdb02e8b574d9"},"headline":"The\u00a0Pok\u00e9mon\u00a0Company is considering\u00a0authentication\u00a0via government-issued IDs\u00a0to battle TCG scalping in Japan\u00a0","datePublished":"2026-05-21T07:48:15+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-21T08:08:49+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-pokemon-company-is-considering-authentication-via-government-issued-ids-to-battle-tcg-scalping-in-japan\/"},"wordCount":307,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-pokemon-company-is-considering-authentication-via-government-issued-ids-to-battle-tcg-scalping-in-japan\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250711-49970-header.jpg","keywords":["News (Japan-related)","Pokemon Series"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-pokemon-company-is-considering-authentication-via-government-issued-ids-to-battle-tcg-scalping-in-japan\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-pokemon-company-is-considering-authentication-via-government-issued-ids-to-battle-tcg-scalping-in-japan\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-pokemon-company-is-considering-authentication-via-government-issued-ids-to-battle-tcg-scalping-in-japan\/","name":"The\u00a0Pok\u00e9mon\u00a0Company is considering\u00a0authentication\u00a0via government-issued IDs\u00a0to battle TCG scalping in Japan\u00a0 - 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Currently devoted to growing Automaton West to the size of its Japanese sister-site, while making sure to keep news concise and developer stories deep and stimulating.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/amber-vjestica\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66954"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66958,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66954\/revisions\/66958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}