Can you enter the Pokemon Center Japan lottery from the US?

No. You cannot enter a Pokemon Center Online lottery from the US, as of October 2026. Membership is for people living in Japan, entries need phone verification, and since 3 August 2026 most winning slots in the big card lotteries go to applicants verified with a My Number Card, a Japanese government ID. Below: the exact rules, how they changed, and what you can do instead.

What does a Pokemon Center Japan lottery require?

Any in-demand card product, such as the 30th Celebration sets and the regional Special Boxes, is sold by lottery (抽選販売) on Pokemon Center Online. These are the requirements as the store and The Pokemon Company state them. We could not load the store’s own pages (they sit behind a waiting room), so account and delivery rules are quoted through pages that reproduce them.

What changed in August 2026?

The Pokemon Company added an ID check on top of the phone check. The notices are on pokemon-card.com:

The result is two entry tracks: a verified track holding most of the winning slots, and a phone-verified track with the rest. The company says verification “does not guarantee a win”, and it publishes no odds. Verification needs the account owner’s own My Number Card, its PIN and an NFC smartphone, and the notice says only the My Number Card is accepted. That is a Japanese ID, so someone living abroad cannot use the verified track. The notices do not say whether foreign residents of Japan can get one.

Can a proxy or forwarder enter for you?

No. A proxy buys an in-stock item with its own Japanese account and ships it on. A lottery entry is different on four counts:

• It is one per person, tied to a verified account.
• The right to buy cannot be passed to anyone else.
• The terms ban multiple accounts and bots (Honto Japan).
• Forwarders say plainly they cannot help with phone verification (Blackship).

What can you do instead?

• Buy after the lottery. Resale is the route for lottery-only items. The Fukuoka Special Box sold for ¥2,090 at retail and was about $152 sealed on eBay on 25 October 2026, so expect a premium. See where to buy Japanese Pokemon cards.
• Order in-stock Pokemon Center items through a proxy. Not everything is a lottery. Buyee vs ZenMarket compares fees, and does Pokemon Center Japan ship to the US covers the rest.
• Use another shop’s route. Card Labo and the Sanyodo bookstores ran their own lotteries for the 30th Celebration Card Set in September 2026. We did not find whether they accept overseas entrants, so check the shop before planning around one.
• Plan the landed cost. A resale purchase pays shipping and a 12.5% US duty on cards; see shipping from Japan to the US and tariffs.

If you will be in Japan, the Pokemon Center stores held their own lottery for the September set (applications closed 11 September, results 14 September). We found no rule on whether visitors can enter, so confirm with the store.

Upcoming sets are listed in Japanese Pokemon release dates 2026. SugoiCards does not sell lottery items.