Pokémon Company Weighs Social Security Scans to Stop Card Sc

"Part of our efforts to provide all customers with equal opportunities and ensure they can enjoy our services safely and securely." That's how The Pokémon Company framed what might be the most aggressive anti-scalping measure any entertainment company has ever attempted: requiring customers to scan a government-issued social security card before they're allowed to buy certain trading cards.

According to a statement posted to the official Japanese Pokémon TCG site, the company is considering a system where customers would scan the chip in their My Number Card, Japan's national photo ID that carries a 12-digit social security number, using their smartphone to verify their Pokémon Trainer Club account. As reported by Automaton, the scheme could go live as early as August 2026 and would cover presale lotteries, certain TCG product sales on the official Pokémon Center online store, and registration for official tournaments held in Japan. The company says it would use a third-party verification service and would not collect or store the individual's My Number itself.

Let that sink in for a second. We're talking about scanning a social security card to buy collectible cardboard. I've covered anti-consumer monetisation, broken launches, and predatory battle passes for years, but the fact that scalping has pushed a company to this extreme says something alarming about the state of the collectibles market. This isn't The Pokémon Company being heavy-handed for fun; it's a company that has clearly exhausted every other option.

How It Got This Bad

The Japanese TCG market has been in freefall for a while now. Scalpers using multiple accounts to mass-buy limited card sets for resale have made it nearly impossible for regular collectors to get their hands on sought-after products. The Japan-exclusive Ninja Spinner expansion got so bad that a major electronics retailer started requiring customers to pass a Pokémon quiz before they could buy it. Last September, The Pokémon Company reported inappropriate participant behaviour at the Yokohama Championships, including people using stolen accounts and faking their ages to enter leagues they didn't qualify for. That explains why tournament registration is bundled into this ID verification push; it's not just about sales, it's about cheating at events too.

The My Number Card itself adds a wrinkle. Despite being introduced in 2016, adoption among Japanese residents has been slow. The card isn't mandatory, though Japan's ruling LDP party is pushing to make it a legal requirement, as reported by Asahi News this week. The Pokémon Company's statement even acknowledges that applying for a My Number Card can take one to two months, and urges fans to start the process now if they want uninterrupted access to products and events come August.

I'm conflicted on this one. On one hand, scalpers have made the Pokémon TCG market miserable for collectors, and half-measures clearly haven't worked. On the other, tying government-issued identification to the purchase of trading cards is a level of friction that would be unthinkable in most Western markets. Whether it actually stops determined scalpers is another question entirely; anyone serious about reselling cards can presumably obtain their own My Number Card. What it does do is make it significantly harder to operate multiple fake accounts, which is where the real volume scalping happens.

There's no indication yet that a similar system would be rolled out internationally. The Pokémon Company's statement is specifically scoped to Japan-based services. But given that scalping is a global problem for the TCG, and that even the company's own online store can't manage demand during major releases, I'd expect other regions to be watching closely to see if this actually moves the needle. The company has previously promised to increase production, but supply alone hasn't solved the problem when bots and bulk buyers can drain stock in minutes.