BODY: Trainers planning a Tuesday visit to Pokémon's first-ever permanent theme park will need to reschedule. PokéPark Kanto, the headline attraction at Yomiuriland in western Tokyo, announced it will be closed all day on Wednesday, June 3 as a typhoon bears down on the Kantō region.
The closure was confirmed by the park's official operators following weather advisories from the Japan Meteorological Agency. Guests who had already purchased dated tickets for June 3 will receive automatic full refunds — a notable departure from typical Japanese theme park policy, where weather closures often result in date changes rather than cash returns. Park officials have asked ticket holders to wait for individual contact regarding the refund process rather than reaching out directly.
PokéPark Kanto opened earlier this year to enormous demand, with timed-entry tickets selling out months in advance. The park recreates iconic locations from the original Red and Blue games, including Pallet Town and a walkable Viridian Forest, and features animatronic Pokémon throughout its grounds. Tickets are sold exclusively through a lottery system, making the June 3 cancellation particularly painful for international visitors who built travel itineraries around their winning slot.
Yomiuriland itself, the host amusement park surrounding PokéPark Kanto, has not yet announced whether its main grounds will also close, though heavy rain and wind warnings typically trigger broader shutdowns at the hilltop facility.
The insider take
Typhoon closures in early June are unusual — Japan's typhoon season traditionally peaks from August through October — and the timing has caught even local fans off guard. What's noteworthy here is the full-refund policy: Japanese theme parks, including Tokyo Disney Resort and Universal Studios Japan, almost never refund tickets for weather, instead offering reschedule windows that can be impossible for overseas guests to use. The Pokémon Company's decision to refund outright signals an awareness that PokéPark Kanto's audience is heavily international, and that goodwill with foreign trainers — many of whom traveled specifically for this visit — matters more than the operational headache of processing thousands of individual refunds.
Originally reported by GAME Watch (Japanese).