BODY: Japan's New Year lucky bag season now starts in October — and Pokémon has just fired the opening shot. The Pokémon Company announced Pikapika Box 2027, its annual mystery grab bag of Pokémon merchandise, with lottery entries opening on Pokémon Center Online at 5:00pm JST on October 27. The price is ¥5,500 (roughly $36).
The hook this year is a guaranteed plush. Every Pikapika Box 2027 contains one randomly selected plush from a trio of Pikachu's evolutionary line — Pichu, Pikachu or Raichu — alongside the usual assortment of undisclosed Pokémon goods. Which of the three you get is luck of the draw, which is rather the point of a fukubukuro.
The schedule is tight and worth marking down. Entries run from October 27 at 5:00pm until November 2 at 4:59pm JST, and a registered Pokémon Center Online account is required to apply. Winners are notified by email from 3:00pm on November 6, and successful applicants must place and pay for their order between November 6 at 3:00pm and November 17 at 4:59pm — miss that window and the slot is gone. Boxes ship between December 11 and December 25, timed to land before the New Year holiday.
Note the naming: a box sold in late 2026 is branded 2027, because fukubukuro are traditionally a New Year's Day purchase. The lottery format is itself a fix — Pokémon Center stores once drew enormous January 1 queues, and moving to an advance draw spread the demand out and took some of the oxygen away from resellers.
The insider take
In Tokyo, fukubukuro are a January 1 ritual: department stores like Isetan and Takashimaya open to lines down the block, and the appeal is the gamble, not the discount. Pokémon's version has become one of the most reliably oversubscribed, which is why the company runs it as a mail-order lottery months ahead rather than a doorbuster. Two practical notes for overseas fans: Pokémon Center Online ships domestically only, so you'll need a Japanese address or a forwarding service, and expect contents to stay secret until the box is in your hands — part of the fun, and part of why these turn up on Mercari at a markup within hours of delivery.
Originally reported by GAME Watch (Japanese).