Differences in Japanese and English Pokemon cards

If you're here, you're probably here because you're considering some Japanese Pokémon cards. You're likely getting tired of scalpers, sky-high English prices, and fighting your local preteens for a Blooming Waters box at your local Costco. English and Japanese Pokemon seem similar enough, and for the most part they are, but we want to cover some key differences between the two to help kick start your Japanese Pokémon journey. Read on to learn the difference in Japanese and English Pokemon!

The first difference we want to cover is the booster boxes themselves. In English, a normal booster box contains 36 packs and each of those sets contain 10 cards, usually including an Energy card. Japanese booster boxes come with 30 packs and each pack has only 5 cards and omits the energy card - which means less bulk and less chances of pulling a duplicate. Within the Japanese sets, there are also what's called Premium sets (Shiny Treasure ex, Terastal Festival) come with 10 packs containing 10 cards each. (Of note is Japanese 151 - which is considered a high class set, but contains 20 packs of 7 cards each.)

If you're considering purchasing Japanese Pokémon cards for the first time and you're used to the English rarity system - we have good news. The Japanese system makes so much more sense compared to the umpteen symbols you have to decipher like hieroglyphs for the English sets.

The most noteworthy difference are the card designations illustration rare in English and art rare in Japanese. These are equivalent terms when describing rarity of a card. On English cards, you'll see a gold star in the bottom right-hand corner of the card and on Japanese cards, in the same space will state "AR" for art rare.

Bouncing off IRs and ARs, next are Special Art Rares or its English equivalent, Special Illustration Rares. SARs or SIRs are deciphered by two gold stars on English cards or the "SAR" designation on Japanese cards.

Japanese Super Rares are denoted by an "SR" on the bottom right in the same spot the English Ultra Rare would have its two silver stars. (Yes - this is separate from the Japanese term "Ultra rare", which refers to Hyper rares in English.)

So what about those gold cards we in English know as hyper rares? Those are called ultra rares in Japanese and are denoted with a "UR" in the bottom right corner - the same spot that the English counterpart has its 3 gold stars.

Now that the exciting ones are out of the way, we'll cover the more common cards. In English, Common cards have a black circle. In Japanese, they have a "C" symbol. It's similar for the others: an English black diamond is an uncommon ("U") in Japanese, black stars are rares ("R") in Japanese, double rares are denoted with an "RR" where the English equivalent has 2 black stars. And lastly, the newly added ACE SPEC, which has "ACE" in the bottom-right where English has a pink star.

Hopefully this has helped you understand the key (and honestly, minor) differences between Japanese and English Pokémon sets - and hopefully you decide to further your journey with us by checking out our shop ;) If you have any additional questions, don't hesitate to contact us!