Why Pokémon and 60 J.League Clubs Are Giving Away 1 Million Bags to Help Fans Find an Oshi

Cheering for the Japan national team at the World Cup does not automatically carry that heat over to the J.League, Japan's professional soccer league. Many national team players play for clubs overseas, and some people cannot find a reason to go to their local club. There is a gap between the excitement of a big tournament and everyday spectating.

The gap itself has long been known. The problem was that nobody had found a way to close it other than "promote the matches."

What the J.League needs is not a detailed explanation of soccer's systems but a small reason for a first-timer to go to the stadium. Use something people already love as the way in, and tell them "your town has a team you can cheer for too". The project with Pokémon took on that role.

This break is not limited to the J.League. Many sports that thrive at an international tournament fail to connect to the domestic league afterward. What decides it is whether you can point to the next place to go while the heat is still there.

The difficulty is that many people who watched the national team do not "like soccer" so much as "like cheering for the Japan national team." Rather than recommending a different object, show them a place they can go with the same feeling.

The project's keyword is "EVOLUTION." For Pokémon, evolution is an easy story of changing form and reaching a new level of strength. The J.League's move into a new era became a single image instead of an explanation of rules and schedules.

Borrowing a word works in other fields too. Riding on a concept the other side already knows gets the message across faster than explaining in your own industry's jargon.

A successful collaboration needs more than two logos side by side. If you find one word that both brands value, you can explain to each side's fans why the two belong together.

Explanations of systems usually do not get through: the season transition, how points work, club licensing. They matter to those who care, but to everyone else they look like changes with no reason.

Replacing them with a single word sacrifices accuracy. Even so, that beats not getting through at all. It is probably best seen as a decision to share the direction before the detailed explanation.

Each of the 60 clubs across J1, J2 and J3, the three professional tiers, was assigned a different Pokémon. Instead of using the same Pikachu nationwide, the project picked Pokémon tied to each club's region, colors, name and character, so fans can have "our club's Pokémon."

The effort of preparing sixty versions is not simply sixty times as much. Each needs a rationale and a rights check. Given the amount of work, it is a bold choice.

Because they took on that effort, fans of every club could receive it as their own. Had efficiency come first, there would have been a single nationwide version.

A nationwide project can build scale but risks looking the same everywhere. Regional pairings created 60 small personal stakes inside one big campaign. The ways in multiply too: from Pokémon to a club, and from a club to another Pokémon.

Deciding the pairings itself generates talk. Why this Pokémon for this club? Conversations hunting for the reason become a way to learn about the club's character.

Even not being convinced by your own town's pairing is a sign of interest. Having opinions means it has become personal. That is far better than no reaction.

Eco bags printed with Pikachu and each club's Pokémon are handed out free to a total of 1 million visitors. Rather than selling a few limited items at a high price, the project prepared enough to reach even people who had never been to a stadium.

Choosing an eco bag was meaningful too. It is something you use, not something you display, so it stays in view after you take it home. The contact lasts as many times as it is used in daily life.

With goods that are only displayed, the contact ends the moment they are put away. Choosing something to use was probably a decision that took the time afterward into account.

Used outside, it is seen by those around. Reach beyond the owner, to the people who see it, is surely part of the calculation.

Free does not mean without value. Getting one takes action: getting a ticket, looking up the location and actually going to the stadium. Instead of the price of goods, they receive the participation of "coming for the first time". The J.League side is investing in future spectating and its relationship with the region.

Whether the investment pays off depends on whether the people who came come a second time. The measure should be judged not by the number handed out but by attendance afterward.

The giveaway comes with a condition: you have to attend. That is the decisive difference from mail order. To receive one you must actually go to the stadium, and that trip is itself the goal.

Once you have been somewhere, the hurdle to a second visit drops sharply. You know how to get there, you know the atmosphere, and you can imagine which seat to pick next. Creating that first visit is worth this much money.

Random products have the fun of the reveal, but also the burden of getting to the design you want. In a 2026 consumer survey, 89.9% of people said they "dislike" or "strongly dislike" random goods.

In this project, which design goes with which club is known in advance. Whether to travel and collect other clubs too, or to cherish your hometown's, is yours to decide. It is a design that keeps the joy of collecting while removing the anxiety of not knowing what you will get.

Not making it random may look like a revenue disadvantage, since there are no duplicate purchases made in pursuit of a set. But the goal of this project was not to sell; it was to get people to come.

When you know what you want, some people will travel. Knowing what you get at which club's match, they can make plans.

When the purpose differs, so does the best way to sell. A design that maximizes sales and a design that maximizes attendance are different things. Confuse the two, and both end up half-done.

Pokémon has built contact with real places, not only in games and video: local governments, vehicles, stores. J.League clubs are found across the country and have long relationships with local children, families, schools and shops.

A project with 60 clubs nationwide is a chance for Pokémon to become a memory in each town. A giant IP enters a regional vessel, and a regional club becomes a way into a world-famous IP. That two-way quality creates value beyond a one-off advertisement.

For content that lives entirely in digital form, places where people actually gather are precious. Existing venues let you build an experience that games and videos cannot reach.

Stadiums are also effective as a way in for children. A family can go, and people stay a long time, which sticks in memory more than a brief encounter.

And there are sixty of them nationwide. Building this many bases on your own is not realistic. The pairing works because each is trading what the other lacks.

What this project hands out is not only eco bags. To people who love Pokémon it gives an encounter with their local club, and to soccer fans an encounter with a new Pokémon. Before selling products, build a place where people can meet what they might cheer for. It shows the large potential of oshi-katsu collaborations.

What we can learn from this project is not its size. It is the order of creating encounters before selling, and a design that does not narrow who can take part. Even if your budget differs by orders of magnitude, that thinking can be copied.

Put the other way, many projects have the order reversed: build a place to sell first, and think about sparking interest afterward. It is easy to end up trying to sell to people who have not yet met you.