A Dragapult ex from a vending machine in Japan. You scan it and, on the right, the English Dragapult ex shows up: Jet Headbutt 70, Phantom Dive 200. That is what TCGJoin does from today with any Japanese Pokémon card: it recognises it, finds the print in your language and shows you both side by side.
What you see now when you scan a Japanese card
In October the scanner started to recognise Japanese prints: around 25,000 cards from 400 sets. What was missing was understanding them. Now, when it identifies a Japanese card, it matches it with its international card by name, HP and attacks, and shows you the English version of that same card: name, attacks and text. Your card is still the Japanese one: it is saved as Japanese in your collection and its price is the Japanese edition's. The English one is there so you know what it does.
- Dragapult ex · JP · Japanese edition · Transformation Mask 81 · $0.39
- Dragapult ex · The same card in English · Prismatic Evolutions 73 · €1.43
- Mega Charizard X ex · JP · Japanese edition · Inferno X 13 · $2.68
- Mega Charizard X ex · In English: Mega Charizard X ex · Phantasmal Flames 13 · €2.97
The match is by print, not just by name: a Japanese Mega Charizard X ex pairs with the Mega Charizard X ex from Phantasmal Flames, which is the same card, and not with another Charizard with a similar name. Rarities are translated too: the Japanese "Super Rare" is our "Ultra Rare".
Also on the card page and in your collection
Open the page of a Japanese card and, under the image, there is a switch: "View in English" or "View the Japanese one". Same when you open it from your collection. In the catalogue grid and in the album the Japanese image stays, because that is the card in your hand. Chinese (traditional) cards, added last week, get the same treatment.
Languages and limits
It works in the languages Pokémon prints cards in: Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese. With the app in English, Dutch or Polish you get the English print; in Catalan, the Spanish one. For now it is Pokémon only: the scanner reads eleven games, but the Japanese-to-international match exists for Japanese and Chinese Pokémon cards. It is live on the web; the mobile app gets it with its next update.
The idea came from the TikTok comments (@tcgjoin): "I scan it and there it is, in my language". If you have a Japanese card that does not match well, drop it in the comments: every request becomes the next video.
If you have a pile of Japanese cards waiting, scan them now: how to scan with your phone, step by step and the Pokémon card scanner page.