An image posted on Facebook by Pokémon Global News purports to show bags of McDonald's Happy Meals discarded with food still inside on a Japanese street Aug. 9, 2025. (Pokémon Global News)
A promotional campaign in Japan engineered by fast-food giant McDonald’s with The Pokémon Co. apparently backfired after reports of avid collectors discarding food in search of trading cards.
The Pokémon trading card promotion, set to run throughout Japan from Saturday through Monday, was abruptly halted on the first day, according to a news release Saturday from McDonald’s Japan.
“During our Pokémon Happy Meal set Pokémon card promotion, we confirmed that a portion of customers bought large quantities with the intent of reselling the cards, causing congestion and confusion at McDonald’s branches and in their surrounding areas,” the company said in a subsequent release Monday.
The company also condemned the waste of food and apologized for its “inadequate response.”
“McDonald’s does not tolerate the purchase of Happy Meals for resale or the abandonment and disposal of food,” it stated.
“This situation clearly violates our long-held philosophy of ‘providing a fun dining experience for children and families’ and our stance as a restaurant and we sincerely acknowledge that our response was inadequate,” the release stated.
A photo posted on Facebook by Pokémon Global News purports to show customers crowding a McDonald’s Japan restaurant during a Pokémon trading card campaign Aug. 9, 2025. (Pokémon Global News)
Pokémon products based on the cast of anime and manga characters popular around the world seem to disappear quickly wherever they are sold. The McDonald’s promotion proved no exception.
During the promotion, Pokémon Happy Sets — called Happy Meals in the United States — came with two Pokémon collectible cards, an original Pokémon Pikachu card and one random card from a set of five, according to a McDonald’s Japan release Aug. 4. The promotion also included a set of eight Pokémon toys.
“I consider myself one of the lucky ones,” Patrick Batac, of Stafford, Va., a civilian contractor at Yokota Naval Base, Japan, told Stars and Stripes on Wednesday by Facebook Messenger. Batac said he visited a McDonald’s in Ikedacho on Saturday looking for Pokémon cards.
“My McDonald’s had zero [people] in line but there were tons of online orders,” he said.
“There were literally bags of Happy Meals overflowing the counters waiting to be picked up and delivered,” he said. “They limited us to five meals in person, but they had no way to limit online orders.”
Batac said he succeeded in his quest. “I was able to get my five quickly, but other places I saw and heard had lines for hours,” he wrote.
McDonald’s Japan limited Happy Meal purchases to five per person during the promotion and urged customers not to purchase the meals solely to resell the cards, according to the Aug. 4 release.
The extra meal purchases caused a trash buildup at many stores and littered the streets nearby, according to a post Monday on the Pokémon Global News, an unofficial Pokémon Facebook page.
Stores quickly ran out of cards, arguments flared between real fans and would-be profiteers waiting in line. Meanwhile reports circulated of some customers ordering more than five meals through the McDonald’s mobile app, according to posts on Pokémon Global News.
The special Pikachu card was posted for $25 and above on eBay hours after the Pokémon promotion was stopped.
McDonald’s Japan announced on Monday that future promotions will come with stricter purchase limits.
“We sincerely apologize for not being able to meet the expectations of our customers who were looking forward to the product due to the early end of distribution,” the company said in its Monday release.
Stars and Stripes reporter Hana Kusumoto contributed to this report.
