Gotcha is a store in downtown Osaka that deals primarily in Pokemon cards, and to a lesser extent Yu-Gi-Oh! ones too. Like a lot of collectibles shops, Gotcha operates as a buyer and a seller, both offering its stock for purchase to customers and also appraising and buying cards brought in by individuals.
However, as of August 5, Gotcha has installed a new policy, and says it will not purchase any cards or items from people of Vietnamese nationality. The statement, posted here through Gotcha’s official Twitter account, reads:
Announcement of refusal of purchase from one portion of customers
"Going forward, we will refuse to purchase any items from customers of Vietnamese nationality. This is a comprehensive decision by our store, and we will not be answering any [questions] related to the detailed reason.
Going forward, we will continue to aim for a safe, secure way of business.
Thank you for your understanding."
It’s a bold move to thank people for their understanding while offering no details for the drastic policy change, and saying in advance that you have nothing more to say obviously invites speculation, which leads us to a few likely possibilities.
In recent years, there’s been a sharp rise in reseller activity for collectible and hard-to-find hobby items in Japan, such as Gundam plastic models PlayStation 5 hardware, and collectible trading card game cards. Launch/restock days for such items now often see long lines of not just fans, but speculators looking to buy as many as they can in order to flip them for a profit as prices rise due to stock-outs (which speculators’ bulk-buying itself contributes to), frustrating ordinary shoppers.
While both Japanese and foreign resellers are involved in such bulk-buying, it’s often the foreign resellers who get the most attention in online discourse, perhaps out of pure prejudice or perhaps because those doing the grumbling find it easier to give Japanese bulk-buyers the benefit of the doubt that they’re buying so much simply because they’re picking up spares for friends or family who are fellow fans.
The surge in the bulk-buying-to-reselling cycle has even caused one Tokyo Pokemon card shop to enact a policy of reserving sales of certain items to kids only, in an attempt to make sure that younger fans can still enjoy the hobby.
However, Gotcha doesn’t seem to be at all opposed to the speculative profiteering nature of collectible cards. In the store’s most recent tweet, posted two days after the no-buying-from-Vietnamese people one, Gotcha lets everyone know that it has unopened Yokohama Memorial Pikachu Decks in stock. These special decks, produced for the 2023 Pokemon World Championships that started this week, were released on July 28 with an official price of 3,500 yen and sold out almost immediately. So how much is Gotcha selling theirs for? 35,000 yen, 10 times the original price, so clearly they’re OK with people making money off of card scarcity.
▼ The Yokohama Memoria Pikachu deck
So maybe Gotcha’s concern about buying from Vietnamese sellers isn’t about reselling cards at a mark-up, but the cards themselves? Another issue that’s been popping up in the collectible card scene in Japan these days is an increase in card shop thefts and burglaries. If a shop has reason to believe that the cards someone is offering for sale are stolen, or maybe counterfeit, than it makes sense that they’d refuse to buy them. What makes less sense, though, would be an assumption that all of the 400,000-plus Vietnamese people living in Japan are involved in some sort of criminal card activity.
It’s also worth noting that it’s unclear whether its policy is actually legal, or has simply been flying under the radar due to the recentness of the announcement and the store’s low-profile on a national scale. With Gotcha itself offering no explanation, its broad-brush policy feels hypocritical, discriminatory, or both, and hopefully a more appropriate way to address whatever problems prompted the store’s decision will be enacted.
Sources: Twitter/@cardshop_gotcha, Pokemon Card Game official website, Immigration Services Agency
Read more stories from SoraNews24.
-- Pokemon Center superstores won’t sell new Pokemon cards in-store, but will it stop scalpers?
-- Stores in Japan ask customers to prove they’re real Pokemon fans when buying cards to stop scalpers
-- Kyoto anime store shuts down suspected Chinese reseller’s attempted Evangelion bulk-order
- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2023/08/07/pokemon-card-shop-in-osaka-says-it-will-refuse-to-buy-cards-from-any-vietnamese-people/
46 Comments
sakurasuki
Now Vietnamese in Japan being identical with illegal things?
kurisupisu
All Vietnamese tarred with the same brush for no given reason?
Japan is a racist’s delight!
falseflagsteve
Lost of Vietnamese young people causing trouble in Osaka lately. Plenty of crimes associated with them, hopefully the Yakuza will crack down on them, the police are hopeless.
Toshihiro
Said it as if it was easy as breathing. Japan still has a long way to go, that I am sure of.
got any stories/ reports to go with that? I'm willing to read.
falseflagsteve
Toshihiro
Yup read some media from Osaka and see what the young Vietnamese gangs are up to, if not attacking and robbing people, drug dealing and overstaying, killing each other. I live in the center, encounter the vermin everytime I go out. Of course not all Vietnamese are like that but there is a large amount about lately, many working in small businesses cash in hand or online delivery services.
Hop this helps.
maxjapank
It's 100% discrimination and shouldn't be tolerated. We cannot shut doors to an entire nationality / race because of a few bad apples. It's unacceptable.
Alan Ochoa
Not surprised the store is taking extreme measures amidst the state that the Japanese Pokemon card market is in, but I highly doubt it's justified in any way nor does it likely help in achieving whatever they're trying to do. Product is so hard to find, even 40 dollar booster boxes tend to resell at over 4x the price, so the fact that they're willing to scalp a championship deck for 10x the price AND they're enacting these racist policies tells me spending money there is a complete waste.
Aly Rustom
Of course! SOP here.
Delight? More like Paradise.
In many ways.
THIS!!
But at the end of the day, this is Japan, and that is what Japan does.
Euro Dude
Omotenashi Japan ;) ... /s
antifun
Setting aside the pre-WW2 levels of racism, this also shows the racist mind's complete ineptitude in understanding business or well anything at all. Would it be hard for the persona-non-grata Vietnamese people to give some cash to a Japanese boy to collect the items for them? How will they even check people's nationality, every southeast Asian looking person now needs to show an ID to buy items?
wolfshine
Like I have been saying: post-Covid Japan is down bad.
Undeniably, a lot of these sentiments existed before that. But I truly believe the pandemic allowed and enabled the xenophobes here to be way more open and vocal about their beliefs, as well as normalizing it to some extent in the general population.
I have no problems with Vietnamese people. They've always been kind and friendly to me, and I'm an American. I'm also well aware of the fact that they probably came to this country with a lot less money and opportunities than I.
I imagine within a few years time the groups that use every possible opportunity to attack Chinese people in Japan will eventually start broadening their scope to include Vietnamese people as well.
And to attach such nasty attitudes to something as cute and harmless as Pokemon trading cards is so sad.
toolonggone
Sure, it helps if your goal is to provide anecdotal evidence as a reason to support blatant discrimination. As for referring to Vietnamese as “vermin” and then, so kindly adding, “of course, not all a Vietnamese are like that but …”, that’s utterly disgusting and is what Nazis did to the Jews and Hutus to Tutsis. I don’t know who you think you’re helping but comments like that really show your true colors.
Roy Sophveason
Karen, you are truly an excellent human being.
wallace
ffs
referring to other human beings as vermin says more about you.
finally rich
Article: Card shop refuses to buy cards from vietnamese people
10 seconds later...
..........nazis!
Cant make this up.
falseflagsteve
wallace
How would you refer to drug dealers, overstayers, those that get girls into the sex trade, upstanding citizens?
Antiquesaving
Using this logic, then a ban on young Japanese, should be in order also, it wasn't foreigners that did the sushi shop licking, etc..and around Takenozuka in Tokyo it isn't foreign youth causing problems at night making going out late night an unpleasant (I am being nice using unpleasant) , the motorbikes/schooter groups driving around at 2:00 3:00 in the morning blocking roads, convenience stores entrances harrassing passerbys and others trying to go to the stores.
Yes we can all see problems with an identifiable group and say stuff like you just did.
wallace
falseflagsteve
wallace
I would never call a human being vermin.
wallace
falseflagsteve
wallace
I have respect for the dignity of life even for those who do not. I find no need to name-call or reduce myself to lower levels.
Both of those did horrific crimes and were punished. Both died in prison.
How do they relate to Vietnamese?
Antiquesaving
It is interesting how the up and down go!
You post it is discrimination and get more up votes than down,
But the instant the post also includes the fact this is japan and this type of discrimination is fully acceptable, not rare and either no law exists or is tolerated by the authorities.
Suddenly the comment gets more down votes because many here refuse to accept reality.
Several years ago a black American was refused service in a eyeglasses shop, refused service is putting it lightly, he was told directly "no blacks" he took the store to court and the Japanese courts said simply the anti discrimination laws apply only to citizens and not foreigners. Didn't matter if you are PR, Long term residency, etc...
So sorry folks when the court basically says discrimination is Ok as long as you are not a Japanese citizen, then the country's policies are racist/discriminatory.
Now you can down vote this fact.
toolonggone
Not caring doesn’t make your comments any less disgusting but you already know that, however you’re now choosing to qualify them.
Really? You’re going to use a serial killer to justify your comments about a nationality? The “gist” I get is that you’re okay dehumanizing people. Keep digging. You’re obviously used to carrying your own shovel.
finally rich
damn, poor mod can't have a 5 min toilet break these days what a zoo
Kaowaiinekochanknaw
The Vietnamese economy is booming compared to Japan. Most likely it's a jealousy thing as they become poorer and poorer in Japan.
Strangerland
No it’s not.
toolonggone
Just sounds like more digging to me, you see.
Antiquesaving
Well I wouldn't say booming but this year Vietnam is looking a at least 4% next year 6% growth as Japan is at 1.3% growth so Vietnam may not be "booming" it is however doing better than Japan on growing it economy.
Granizo
I'm not knowledgable about Japanese laws, but if this is not illegal, it should be. Some people claim there are many Vietnamese who are doing bad things. Even if that was true, even if 99.9% percent of Vietnamese staying in Japan were criminals (I don't think it's the case), you can't blanket blame all people from a country just because of where they were born for the crimes of their fellow countrymen. The same applies to some people blanket calling Japanese racist and xenophobic because of the actions of this store no matter how many Japanese think similarly. And I personally think most don't.
wolfshine
Wrong.
While "booming" is not a particularly descriptive way of summarizing the situation... Vietnam's economy has grown to be about thirty times what it was thirty years ago. For Japan, GDP has virtually not moved in three decades.
But the opportunities and future growth prospects for Vietnam look pretty good even if they are still a relatively poor country. They've been peeling more and more manufacturing away from China as well. Japan's economy is still much bigger and richer than Vietnam, that is certainly true. Japan also has this bizarre philosophy of "trickle up" economics wherein they tax the lower and middle classes heavily, expecting government programs to somehow create this atmosphere of prosperity. While the infrastructure looks pretty good, a few people at the top are getting ludicrously rich while nobody else shares in it. Essentially, Taro keeps propping up the unequal and unfair hierarchy complex while stagnant wages and inflation burn away his family's wealth and happiness... that is, if he ever had enough time off from his career to start a family to begin with, that is.
I don't want to take away from the fact that some Japanese corporate institutions are legitimately doing a lot of good for the world, such as their exportation of rail infrastructure that many countries rich and poor desperately need.
Unfortunately, a lot of Japanese allow themselves to be routinely humiliated and made into a meme by the very hierarchy complex that dominates their existence, and they then take it out on foreigners and make them the object of blame. They're very bad at making compromises, aside from historical examples in which they've been forced to.
Antiquesaving
Actually you can in the case of Japan by the simple fact that in Japan this is legal as long as the person isn't a citizen.
The simple fact that the government legally accepts this behaviour, says it all.
If the people, the leaders were against discrimination, then they would change the laws to include discrimination against everyone not just citizens.
wallace
There have been successful court cases against racism and discrimination. But there are too many cases where nothing happens.
https://www.debito.org/
John
This would be illegal in a democratic country. Such a shop would be forced to close by law. If japan is a modern and civilised country, it must force companies to provide valid reason for refusal of customers including credit card application refusals. This is only in Japan that they can refuse you on the basis of race.
John
There’s no doubt that there are more criminal japanese people in japan and other countries than Vietnamese people. There are many hard working decent vietnamese people in japan and other countries.
Antiquesaving
I posted this:
Seems people here don't like facts or reality.
Here is a great example of how the people and government are!
Now this is just one case but this one sticks out because normally discrimination laws in Japan cover all citizens, but seems the courts in Japan view naturalized citizens as not having the same rights.
Non citizens even less.
But it seems clear many here don't like that fact.
Why do western countries have laws against discrimination based on race, ethnicity, disabilities that apply to all not just citizens or a chosen few?
Because the people demanded change, the politicians weren't going to do anything on their own.
The population of those countries go up and made it clear discrimination was intolerable and the government reacted and made laws protecting minorities.
So the inaction of the Japanese government, the rulings of the Japanese courts is basically a reflection of the population that says nothing and tolerates this type of behaviour by stores, hotels, restaurant, golf clubs, sento, onsen, etc....
La vie douce
Yes, it is...educate yourself with the GDP figures first.
"GDP Annual Growth Rate in Vietnam averaged 6.21 percent from 2000 until 2023, reaching an all time high of 13.71 percent in the third quarter of 2022 and a record low of -6.02 percent in the third quarter of 2021."
Reginald Bok
Cowardly. And wrong
I hope the shop goes out of business
Mocheake
I hope so too.
RareReason
@Antiquesaving,
The problem is these days few people are able to separate identifying a problem from condoning it.
Too busy virtue signalling to read in context.
Alan Ochoa
I'm just confused as to how everyone can't come to the agreement here that refusing service to an entire race of people just on the basis of their race is abhorrent and wrong? Why jump through hoops to justify the store's decision? The irony is that racists who are defending this store would likely be viewed the same way as store owners view their Vietnamese customers, yet some of y'all can't stop going to bat for them lmao.
Strangerland
That's like saying a small business that increased it's sales 10% last year is doing better than Pepsi.
wallace
Alan Ochoa
Vietnamese and Japanese are the same race.
Antiquesaving
Not even close!
Vietnam is Haplogroups B and M
Japan's Haplogroups are C, D and O.
Just because they may look similar they are basically from different genetic backgrounds.
So the Race is a factor and it is Racism.
Antiquesaving
Business 101 if the large company doesn't increase or goes stagnant or negative and the small business keeps growing soon the big guy is bankrupt or overtaken by the small guy.
Look at how many major Japanese corporations are now on the ropes like Toshiba or gone like Sanyo.
Today it is grow or fail.
wallace
Vietnamese and Japanese are Asians. They are different ethnic groups but their race is the same.
https://api-gbv.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/API-demographics-identities-May-2019.pdf
Strangerland
Yes I’m sure Pepsi worries daily about all those up and coming small businesses.
Meanwhile as a small business owner, I know exactly where we stand in the greater scheme of things. Our best year ever isn’t even a statistical significance for conglomerates.
Vietnam is doing well, which is great (I like the country and the people). But you people are getting all uppity cause I pointed out a fact of scale.
Shirokuma4812
Does anyone remember the LARGE influx of Vietnamese that came to the US after the Vietnam War? With the huge influx of Vietnamese came the huge gang influx and the creation of BTK. A very filthy and murderous gang that the FBI is still battling today.
Roy Sophveason
Genetics, i.e. biology, does not matter. It must not matter because it reduces the issue to a discussion about where exactly in the genetic tree lies the point where it becomes "okay" to discriminate against a people. Such a threshold must not exist.
To borrow the definition from ICERD, all discrimination "based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin" is a form of racial discrimination. Someone discriminating people based on a nationality is a racist. Period.