Pokémon Stores in Japan Will Use Facial Scans to Limit Scalper Visits
Customers aged seven and older will need to accept the system to enter and buy from participating stores, with visits limited to once per day.
Nintendo has announced that Pokémon stores in Japan will introduce facial recognition scans alongside new entry and purchase rules. The policy is meant to stop shoppers from visiting multiple times in one day and buying up stock for resale.
The Pokémon Company said in its official guidance that facial recognition will be used to verify customers’ identities, support store security, and check whether shoppers follow the updated rules. The announcement was also reported by IGN.
Customers will only be allowed to enter and purchase from a Pokémon store once per day. The system can deny entry if it identifies someone who has already entered that day or received more than one entry ticket.
The change is intended to close a potential loophole involving numbered entry tickets. As reported by Video Games Chronicle, a customer could previously leave a store, obtain another ticket, and return later the same day. Facial recognition will help staff identify repeat visits, and staff may also approach customers directly if they see them entering multiple times.
The requirement applies to children from elementary-school age onward. Children below elementary-school age, including preschoolers up to six years old, are exempt from facial recognition, but they must enter with a parent or guardian and cannot visit alone.
There is no opt-out for customers who want to shop in person. The Pokémon Company says accepting the facial recognition system and its related rules will be a condition of entering the stores. It also says it will manage customers’ facial image data and number of visits only for these purposes, with the collected data deleted promptly after a certain period rather than kept indefinitely. The notice does not specify how long that period will be.
Scalpers have repeatedly targeted Pokémon card releases, buying sought-after products before reselling them at higher prices. Japan’s Gundam stores have used a similar approach to limit purchases of exclusive items, giving Pokémon retailers an existing example to follow.
Facial recognition may make it harder for shoppers to bypass the once-per-day limit, but the system will still need to identify customers correctly. A failed scan or mistaken alert could prevent a legitimate buyer from entering, which adds another concern to a policy already requiring fans to hand over biometric data for access.
Whether the new rules improve stock access will depend on how well the stores handle both scalpers and ordinary customers. Share your thoughts in the comments, and follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, and Instagram.
