Physical Pokémon Stores and Cafes Across Japan Close to Combat COVID-19

Pokémon Center Kyoto in 2019 (photo: Daryl Harding)

 

The Japanese Pokémon Center website announced today that from August 28, all physical Pokémon Center, Pokémon Cafe, Pikachu Sweets, and Pokémon stores will be closed in State of Emergency areas to combat the rising cases of COVID-19 as the Delta variant spreads widely across the country. 

 

 

【重要なお知らせ】
8月28日（土）より当面の間、一部を除く「緊急事態宣言」発令中の地域のポケモンセンター・ポケモンストア・ポケモンカフェを臨時休業いたします。
対象の店舗、また商品や飲食のご予約があるお客様へのご対応は、こちらをご覧ください。https://t.co/9p0BFLxpgg pic.twitter.com/qrhWtwCCF7

— ポケモン公式ツイッター (@Pokemon_cojp) August 26, 2021

 

 

Previously the stores closed when the government requested closures in the first State of Emergency, but since then the central and prefectural governments have been haphazard with requests to close, with some areas only having department stores open during the week, or closing early.

 

Pokémon have taken it upon themselves to close during this current State of Emergency, which expands to Hokkaido, Miyagi, Gifu, Aichi, Mie, Shiga, Okayama, and Hiroshima this on Friday and already included Tokyo, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Chiba, Saitama, Kanagawa, Shizuoka, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Fukuoka and Okinawa prefectures. It is scheduled to end on September 12 if indicators lower.

 

This is the second measure Pokémon in Japan has put in place to combat COVID-19, with the franchise only allowing sales of the highly sought-after Pokémon cards to be made online – limiting scalpers as well.

 

Source: Pokémon Japan on Twitter

 

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Daryl Harding is a Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.

 

 

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