<figure id="attachment_466787" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-466787" style="width: 2780px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="a8c74a97"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/05/1d828b93f1528c91b419471c1751f3e4.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-466787" class="wp-caption-text">A Pokémon card sold at an auction in the U.S. this past February for over 2.5 billion yen. It broke the Guinness record for the &#8220;Most Expensive Pokémon Card.</figcaption></figure>
<h3><span class="strongInContent"> A large number of counterfeit Pokémon cards are being sold in China.</span></h3>
<p> The trading card market is heating up. Crimes and troubles related to Pokémon cards are also increasing dramatically. Robberies of Trekkie stores targeting high-value Pokémon cards are becoming a regular occurrence, not only in Japan but also in the U.S., U.K., and other parts of the world. The McDonald&#8217;s Happy Set Pokémon card buyout scandal is also fresh in our minds.</p>
<p> Now, it is said that counterfeit Pokékas are circulating in China in large quantities behind the scenes.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The Chinese mafia is counterfeiting Pokémon cards with a premium and distributing them on the market.</span></p>
<p> Mr. A, who is well acquainted with the Chinese black market, said so.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> There have been stories in Japan of people getting counterfeit Pokémon cards on Mercari and other sites, but they are poor copies, like color copies made by a copying machine. Counterfeit Pokékas in China are not at that level. They are of high quality because the Chinese mafia is in the background and they are printed at a proper printing factory.</span></p>
<p> In Japan, for example, there are many cases in which a poorly-run printing shop is taken in by gangsters after pulling operating funds from black market and turned into a black market printing factory that prints fake ID cards and securities. Counterfeit pokécas are being printed in black market factories under the control of the Chinese mafia.</p>
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<p> Why are the Chinese mafia counterfeiting Pokékas?</p>
<p> There are three main reasons.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> (1) High criminal cost</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> (2) Light penalty</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> (3) Victims do not complain about the damage.</span></p>
<p> Some pokécas have a value of 2.528 billion Japanese yen each, but it is pokécas up to several hundred thousand yen class that are actively being counterfeited.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" More cost-effective than making counterfeit bills."></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">Counterfeiting currency is punishable by death.</span></h3>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> If a large number of extremely rare, high-priced cards are circulated, they will be exposed as counterfeits, but if they are of modest value, the number of cards circulating in the market is also quite large, so it is unlikely that they will be exposed.</span></p>
<p> Even if <span class="strongInContent">they are &#8220;modest</span>,&#8221; the unit price per piece is far higher than that of counterfeit bills. The highest denomination of Chinese banknotes is 100 yuan per sheet. In Japanese yen, that is 2,200 to 2,300 yen. Even if counterfeit Japanese yen bills were printed, the maximum price would be 10,000 yen per bill, and US dollar bills would cost about 16,000 yen per bill. On the other hand, a single counterfeit Japanese yen bill costs several hundred thousand yen. Moreover, since it is easier to print than banknotes or securities, it is by far the most cost-effective job for counterfeiters.</p>
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<p> Moreover, even if counterfeit pokécas are discovered and arrested, the penalty is much lighter than for counterfeit bills.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Counterfeiting currency is a serious crime in China, punishable by the death penalty, but the manufacture and sale of counterfeit products is only charged with trademark infringement, which carries a lighter sentence of up to three years in jail, or up to 10 years at most.</span></p>
<p> In addition, counterfeiting of Pokékas is difficult to detect in China. This is because the victims of counterfeiting lose money when they report the damage.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> In China, counterfeit bills are circulated in large quantities, but if you report the damage to the police or a bank, they basically confiscate the counterfeit bills and that&#8217;s it. There is no investigation, no compensation for the loss, and the victim just loses money.</span></p>
<p> So what do the people who have been caught with counterfeit bills do?</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The never-ending game of Bubba-doke"></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">I have no love for Pokemon.</span></h3>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> In China, no one is honest about their identity. Even if they realize they have been cheated, they keep quiet, and when they pay their own bills, they slip in counterfeit bills and have the next &#8220;victim&#8221; pick them up.</span></p>
<p> It&#8217;s like playing Bubba&#8217;s card.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Counterfeit pokécas are also evidence of a crime, so even if you report them to the police, they will probably just confiscate them as &#8220;evidence. So in the past, there used to be warnings about counterfeit Pokékas posted on popular local social networking sites such as RED, but recently I haven&#8217;t seen them at all. I think they don&#8217;t want the information to be publicized so that the &#8220;victims&#8221; of the fakes can sell out their counterfeit cards.</span></p>
<p> It&#8217;s like a game of &#8220;Bubba Bubba,&#8221; where the winner pushes the winner&#8217;s card to the other side.</p>
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<p> Another reason for this phenomenon is that, unlike the Pokémon markets in Japan, Europe, the United States, and Southeast Asia, the percentage of people who buy and collect Pokémon as a pure hobby is extremely small in the Chinese Pokémon market.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Many Chinese who get into Pokémon are speculators. There are very few people who have a love for Pokémon. They are buying premier Pokékas in the same way that they buy real estate overseas that they don&#8217;t intend to live in in order to make money by selling it.</span></p>
<p> So, even if they get counterfeit pokémon, as long as they don&#8217;t lose money selling them, there is no problem. If no one reports the crime, the penalty is too heavy or too light, and no investigation will be launched in the first place. For the counterfeiters, this is a win-win situation. Moreover, unlike the cards that real users have won, counterfeit Pokékas have never been played with and are freshly printed. Since they are in &#8220;good condition,&#8221; with no signs of wear or tanning, they may even be sold at a higher price than the genuine cards.</p>
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<p> This is a clever alchemy that can only be performed in China, the world&#8217;s factory of counterfeit products.</p>
<p> Many of the Happy Set Pokémon cards bought up by resellers are believed to have been sent to mainland China by the vendors. It would be quite natural for the Jokers that were pushed to the Japanese market by the resellers to have quietly made their way into the Japanese market by following that route. There is a possibility that they are already in circulation.</p>
<p> If you own a premier Pokemon, it would be a good idea to have it inspected by a reliable eye.</p>


 Yukio Ishihara

 While crimes involving Trekkie cards are becoming more frequent in Japan, counterfeit Premier Pokémon cards made by the mafia are being sold in large quantities in China. There are three reasons behind this.

Reimported to Japan?　Three reasons why the Chinese mafia is devoted to counterfeiting “Premier Pokémon Cards”.

Access Ranking

Reimported to Japan? Three reasons why the Chinese mafia is devoted to counterfeiting “Premier Pokémon Cards”.

Access Ranking

Reimported to Japan?　Three reasons why the Chinese mafia is devoted to counterfeiting “Premier Pokémon Cards”.