Japanese Pokémon card values: every card priced.

What are Japanese Pokémon cards worth?

This is a price guide to the value of Japanese Pokémon cards: 20,900 Japanese-language cards from 212 Japanese sets and promo lines, 20,339 of them with a raw near-mint market price and 5,762 with graded PSA, BGS or CGC values. Prices are in US dollars and refresh weekly.

The typical Japanese card is not valuable. The median raw price across the catalogue is $2.53, and 63% of priced cards (12,881) sell for under $5 — the commons, uncommons and regular rares that fill every pack. The money sits in a narrow top slice: 1,014 cards are worth $100 or more raw and 161 clear $1,000. The most valuable raw card right now is リーリエ (Sun & Moon #397/SM-P) at $26,613. For the full ranking see the most expensive Japanese Pokémon cards, or browse card-by-card through every Japanese set.

Japanese card values by series

Grouped by series and sorted by median raw price (series with at least 50 priced cards). VS has the highest median at $39.99; Scarlet & Violet the lowest at $0.63. A median counts every common and uncommon in the series, so a low one doesn't mean the series lacks valuable cards — the last two columns show where they are.

Japanese rarity codes and what each tier is worth

Rarity is the fastest way to tell whether a Japanese card is worth looking up. Modern Japanese cards print a letter code beside the collector number; older sets use the same circle, diamond and star symbols as English cards. The names do not always match English: a Japanese SR is the tier English sets call Ultra Rare, and a Japanese UR is the gold tier English calls Hyper Rare. The counts and median raw prices below come straight from our catalogue, so they show what a tier is usually worth as well as what its best card is worth.

Two things stand out. Modern chase tiers are cheaper than their reputation — the median Special Art Rare is $26.49 raw; the headline prices belong to a few cards in each tier, which the Highest raw column shows. And vintage scarcity is expensive: the median Gold Star we price is $4,119. A card with no rarity badge has no rarity recorded in our source data, which includes many promos.

Why some Japanese cards carry a premium

They come out first. Japanese expansions have generally been released before their English counterparts, and English sets are often assembled from one or more Japanese releases. Collectors who want a card before it exists in English can only buy the Japanese print.

Some were never printed in English. Many Japanese promos never received an English release, so the Japanese print is the only version there is and there is no English price to anchor it.

Print quality has a good reputation. Modern Japanese cards have a long-standing reputation among collectors and graders for more consistent centering than English prints, and dealers credit that with a higher rate of PSA 10s. Treat it as reputation, not a guarantee: every card is graded on its own merits, and some vintage Japanese cards — early magazine promos among them — often turn up off-centre.

None of this makes a Japanese card automatically worth more than its English equivalent — language alone doesn't set the price. The prices above are for the Japanese print only, so compare the two versions of a specific card before buying or selling.

How to check the value of your Japanese Pokémon cards

1. Identify the card. Search above by English name, Japanese name (カタカナ works — リザードン finds Charizard) or set. Then match the collector number at the bottom of the card, because one Pokémon can appear several times in the same set at different rarities.

2. Check the rarity mark against the table above. A common or uncommon from a modern set is almost always bulk; a holo, Gold Star, SAR or gold UR is worth a closer look.

3. Be honest about condition. The headline price assumes near mint. Whitening on the edges, scratches on the holo or a crease pull a raw card well below it.

4. Decide whether grading is worth it. Switch the "Price by grade" filter to PSA 10 or PSA 9 to see what a slabbed copy sells for. Grading only pays when the graded price clears the raw price by more than the fee — the grading ROI calculator runs that sum for you.

Japanese Pokémon card values — FAQ