Same set name, same launch day, different cards.
On 16 September 2026, 30th Celebration released in English and Japanese at the same time — billed by Bulbapedia and Cardgamer as the first Pokémon TCG set with a coordinated worldwide launch. That has led plenty of buyers to assume the two versions are simple translations of each other. They are not. The English set runs 128 numbered cards, the Japanese set 103. An English pack holds five cards plus an energy; a Japanese pack holds six. The chase Mewtwo ex is 134/103 in Japan and 157/128 in English. Even the reprints are numbered on different systems.
We ship Japanese sealed product and singles out of Tokyo every week, so this comparison is written from the Japanese side of the counter, with English facts sourced from the official Pokémon product showcase and aggregator details labelled as such. Both versions have now released, but market data is still thin this soon after launch, so treat any price below as a snapshot, not a rate; our own store-listing conversions use ¥154/USD, verified 2026-09-16.
English 30th Celebration and Japanese 30th CELEBRATION (M6a) share their artwork but differ in set size (128 vs 103 base cards), pack contents (5 cards + 1 energy vs 6 all-foil cards), secret-rare numbering and product line-up — and no English booster box has been announced, making the Japanese M6a booster box the only sealed 20-pack box of this set. Our own listing is currently open as a pre-order at ¥25,000 (~$162) (Sealed; the No Shrink option is sold out at the time of this update). For the closest historical parallel, the Japanese-exclusive S8a 25th Anniversary Collection box (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order) shows how a Japan-side anniversary print run behaves after release.
- 30th CELEBRATION (M6a) and English 30th Celebration both released worldwide on September 16, 2026, the first coordinated Japan/English launch for this line.
- The official card database still lists only the 103 base-set cards, the 30 Classic Collection reprints and the 8 Basic Energy (140 entries); the AR/SAR/FUR block (104–135) remains outside it, so it still doesn’t settle the AR/SAR/FUR vs IR/SIR/FUR comparison below beyond what compiled checklists already show.
- Our own M6a box: Sealed currently listed at ¥25,000 (~$162); No Shrink sold out. The FUTURISTIC BOX is now listed as a pre-order at ¥79,800 (~$518); the 25th Anniversary Golden Box is now listed at ¥257,500 (~$1,672).
- Full card list: every card of the set with its official image, in number order — 30th CELEBRATION (M6a) card list (all 173 cards).
Set Size and Numbering: 128 vs 103
The single biggest structural difference is the base set count. The Japanese M6a set is numbered out of 103 (“xxx/103”), with a 32-card secret-rare block above that — 20 AR + 10 SAR + 2 FUR, numbers 104–135 — plus a separate 30-card Classic Collection reprint block at 136–165. The English set is numbered out of 128 (“xxx/128”), per Serebii, Bill’s Archive and Pokecottage, with its own 30-card secret-rare block above that per compiled checklists — 18 IR + 10 SIR + 2 FUR, numbers 129–158.
Why 25 extra cards in the base set? Bulbapedia’s answer: the English expansion folds in cards from two Japanese products — the M6a set itself and the separate Japanese Premium Deck Set featuring Espeon ex and Umbreon ex. In Japan those full-art deck cards live in a ¥6,200 boxed deck product, now also released; in English they are part of the main expansion.
That merge shifts individual card numbers. Cross-referencing a Japanese card list against English singles will not line up one-to-one.
The 30 Pikachu subset follows a cleaner rule of its own: the English number is the Pikachu’s position in the 30-illustrator series (1–30) plus 22 — not a fixed offset from the Japanese card number. The first Pikachu, Japanese 017/103, is English 023/128; the last, Japanese 046/103, is English 052/128. Outside that subset the shift is different for every card: Ho-Oh is 007/103 in Japan and 012/128 in English; Lugia is 097/103 in Japan and 121/128 in English.
Check the denominator. “/103” means Japanese M6a; “/128” means the English print. It is the fastest tell when a listing photo is ambiguous, and the same trick that separates Japanese and English anniversary cards in our Japanese rarity guide for graded buyers.
Inside the Packs: 5+1 vs 6
The packs themselves are built differently:
| Item | English pack | Japanese pack (M6a) |
|---|---|---|
| Cards per pack | “Five foil cards” + one foil Basic Energy (official showcase wording) | Six cards, all foil (official) |
| Pikachu | 1 per pack, from 30 illustrations | 1 per pack, from 30 illustrators |
| Energy card | 1 foil Basic Energy per pack; Bill’s lists 8 YOSHIROTTEN energies under set code MEE #009–016 (unverified officially) | 1 special YOSHIROTTEN energy per pack; Bill’s reports type codes under M6a with no numbers |
| Pack price | No official standalone pack price published; Booster Bundle maths works out to $26.94 ÷ 6 ≈ $4.49 per pack at retailer MSRP | ¥360 per pack MSRP (tax-in) |
Note the careful wording on energy: English officially calls its card a “foil Basic Energy card”, Japan calls its card a special energy. Whether they are the same card in two languages is not confirmed anywhere we could verify, so we present the two official descriptions side by side rather than treating them as identical.
The set codes differ too: Japan uses M6a; for English, Bill’s Archive uses “30C” while pokemon.com’s card-image folders say “MEP” — the official English abbreviation is unverified.
On pull rates, nothing is official in either language, even after the September 16, 2026 release; the confirmed structural facts are the ones above, and any percentage you see quoted is a community estimate.
FUR and Secret-Rare Numbering
The set’s two flagship chase cards illustrate the numbering gap perfectly. In Japan, the Futuristic Rare Mewtwo ex is 134/103 and Mew ex is 135/103. In English, per Serebii and Pokecottage, the same cards are #157/128 and #158/128.
Below the FUR pair, the secret slots diverge further. On the Japanese side, the full AR block now runs 104/103–123/103 (20 cards, all shown as of September 16, 2026) and the SAR block runs 124/103–133/103 (10 cards, all ex versions of the main set’s 10 Pokémon ex, all shown) — all 32 secret rares (104–135) have now been seen, but the AR/SAR/FUR block is still not in the official card database. The Japanese Art Rare trio — Lapras 106/103, Lycanroc 113/103 and Hisuian Zorua 122/103 — map to English numbers #131, #138 and #145 on Serebii’s list, which also adds entries such as Drifloon #136 and Meowth #144. Serebii files these English cards under a “Gold Star”-style label while our compiled checklists call the equivalent English block IR (Illustration Rare) — the same slot, described differently per source. The Pikachu ex Day and Night special arts sit at 126/103 and 127/103 in Japan, with Serebii listing English two-star Pikachu ex entries at #149 and #150.
The 30 Pikachu themselves get an extra twist in English beyond the +22 rule above: Bill’s Archive reports dual numbering, e.g. #028/128 alongside a “06/30” count, with a distinct holofoil pattern and the 30th Anniversary logo behind the card text. How the whole secret block is organised on the Japanese side is mapped card by card in our secret-rare numbering explainer, and the FUR chase cards are covered in the FUR chase card list.
The Classic Collection Reprints
Both regions get 30 anniversary reprints spanning Base Set to the modern day, but they are numbered on completely different systems — and this is where buyers most often get confused.
- Japan: the reprints take secret-style set numbers, 136/103 to 165/103, numbered inside the M6a set itself. As of the official card list published September 9, 2026, all 30 numbers are confirmed in the official card database with names and illustrators — see our full reprints list for every row, including Base Set Pikachu 136, Charizard 137, “Crystal” Lugia 142, Dark Tyranitar 144, Pikachu & Zekrom-GX 160 and Magikarp 165.
- English: per Bill’s Archive and Cardgamer, the Classic Collection cards keep their original card numbering with a golden border and a 30th stamp — numbered separately from, and not counted toward, the 128-card base set, and not legal in Standard play.
Two open questions worth flagging honestly: whether the 30 reprints are card-for-card identical between English and Japanese is unverified, and so is whether English Classic Collection cards appear in ordinary packs at all — the showcase describes English packs as five foils plus an energy without mentioning reprints, while the Ultra-Premium Collection explicitly includes a dedicated three-card Classic Collection booster pack.
The Products Are Not the Same Either
The card differences extend into the sealed product line, which barely overlaps between regions:
| Comparison | English (retailer-listed US MSRP) | Japanese (official MSRP, tax-in) |
|---|---|---|
| Booster box | None announced as of Sep 16, 2026 | BOX = 20 packs, ¥7,200 MSRP; sold by lottery via Pokémon Center Online inside Japan. Our own listing is currently open as a pre-order at ¥25,000 (Sealed); the No Shrink option is sold out at the time of this update, shipping from Tokyo after release; see the product page for the current dispatch date. |
| Biggest pack bundle | Elite Trainer Box $49.99 (≈¥7,950): 9 packs = 54 cards | BOX ¥7,200: 20 packs = 120 cards |
| Packs only | Booster Bundle $26.94 (≈¥4,280): 6 packs, from 2 Oct | 6 packs = ¥2,160 at MSRP |
| Premium box | Ultra-Premium Collection $179.99 (≈¥28,600): 30 packs + 2 promos, from 6 Nov | FUTURISTIC BOX ¥27,500 MSRP: 0 packs, 2 FUR Pikachu ex promos + accessories; our listing is currently open as a pre-order at ¥79,800 (~$518) |
| Release waves | 16 Sep (released), then 2 Oct, 30 Oct, 6 Nov (4 Dec wave retailer-reported) | 16 Sep (BOX, deck set, FUTURISTIC BOX — released), then 16 Oct (card sets, upcoming) |
The English line also has region-exclusive promo cards that simply do not exist in Japan — the Elite Trainer Box’s full-art foil Nidorina promo being the clearest example of an English-product exclusive, with a second Pokémon Center-logo version in the Pokémon Center ETB.
Flip it around and Japan has product-exclusive promos of its own: the FUTURISTIC BOX with its two FUR-style Pikachu ex promos (131/M-P and 132/M-P), and the ¥1,200 card sets arriving October 16, whose nine sets carry three starter-trio promos each under M-P 101–127. Neither has an announced English equivalent. The English side runs its own separate promo numbering, set code MEP EN 094–109 per compiled checklists — covering everything from the Tech Sticker Collection through the Figure Collection exclusives — so a Japanese M-P number and an English MEP EN number are never the same card even when the two products look similar. Our own FUTURISTIC BOX listing is now open as a pre-order at ¥79,800 (~$518); the Card Set is sold out at the time of this update — restock requests go through Quick Order.
Where to Buy the Japanese Version
Since there is no English booster box, collectors who want a sealed box of this set are looking at the Japanese BOX by default. Our M6a 30th CELEBRATION booster box is currently listed as a pre-order at ¥25,000 (~$162) (Sealed); the No Shrink option is sold out at the time of this update — shipping from Tokyo after release; see the product page for the current dispatch date.
To see how a Japanese anniversary print run trades once it has real market history, the 2021 products are the reference point. The Japanese S8a 25th Anniversary Collection booster box (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order) is currently listed at ¥67,200 (~$436); the 25th Anniversary Golden Box is currently listed at ¥257,500 (~$1,672) — both covered in our S8a pull-rate guide and Golden Box guide.
(update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order)
For everything else, browse the full Japanese sealed booster box collection, our Pokémon card collection and PSA10 singles, or build a mixed order through Quick Order.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are English and Japanese 30th Celebration cards the same?
The artwork is shared between the two print runs, per aggregator Bill’s Archive, but the sets differ structurally: English runs 128 base cards versus 103 in Japanese, card numbers do not match, secret rares are numbered differently, and the English set folds in cards from the separate Japanese Premium Deck Set per Bulbapedia.
What number is Mewtwo ex FUR in the English and Japanese sets?
The Futuristic Rare Mewtwo ex is 134/103 in the Japanese M6a set and #157/128 in the English set, per Serebii and Pokecottage. Mew ex FUR is 135/103 in Japanese and #158/128 in English.
How do the 30 Pikachu numbers convert between Japanese and English?
The English number is the Pikachu’s position in the 30-illustrator series (1–30) plus 22. Japanese 017/103, the first Pikachu, is English 023/128; Japanese 046/103, the last, is English 052/128. Cards outside the Pikachu subset don’t follow this rule — each shifts by its own amount.
Do English 30th Celebration packs contain fewer cards than Japanese packs?
Per the official product showcase, an English pack holds five foil cards plus one foil Basic Energy card; a Japanese M6a pack holds six cards, all foil, including one special YOSHIROTTEN energy. Both include one Pikachu from 30 illustrations per pack.
Is there an English 30th Celebration booster box?
No English booster box appears anywhere in the official 30th Celebration product showcase as of September 16, 2026, release day. The largest pack-only English product is the six-pack Booster Bundle; the only sealed 20-pack box of this set is the Japanese BOX at ¥7,200 MSRP, currently listed at our store as a pre-order.
When do the English and Japanese 30th Celebration sets release?
Both released on 16 September 2026 in a simultaneous worldwide launch. English follow-up product waves land on 2 October, 30 October and 6 November 2026 (a 4 December tin wave is retailer-reported, not yet on the official showcase); Japan’s card sets follow on 16 October 2026.
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