{"id":66572,"date":"2026-07-06T18:58:58","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T10:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=66572"},"modified":"2026-07-06T18:58:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T10:58:58","slug":"pokemon-soccer-collaboration-kicks-off-with-japans-j-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=66572","title":{"rendered":"Pok\u00e9mon Soccer Collaboration Kicks Off With Japan&#8217;s J League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The Pok\u00e9mon Company announced a collaboration today with J League, Japan\u2019s top professional soccer association. As part of the Pok\u00e9mon 30th anniversary celebrations, each of the J League\u2019s 60 teams is getting its own Pok\u00e9mon.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The featured Pok\u00e9mon were picked to match each of Japan\u2019s pro soccer teams. For example, Roasso Kumamoto is getting Ponyta as its partner Pok\u00e9mon, which matches up with the club\u2019s horse logo and mascot. Akita Blaublitz gets seahorse Pok\u00e9mon Horsea, which as Pok\u00e9mon fans will know, has Water\/Dragon-type Pok\u00e9mon Kingdra as its final form. This meshes with Blaublitz\u2019s mascot, which is a blue dragon called Blaugon. <\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"article-slideshow\"><button type=\"button\" style=\"display:none\" class=\"jsx-2228525885\"\/><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">Pok\u00e9mon Soccer Collaboration Kicks Off With Japan&#8217;s J League<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img alt=\"Image credit: https:\/\/www.jleague.jp\/special\/pokemon\/.\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><span class=\"button-text jsx-729543028 button button--primary jsx-3381835873 jsx-4266531355 row-pagination-button next contained centered round large\" data-cy=\"paginate next\" title=\"Open Slideshow\"><span class=\"ign-icon right-chevron jsx-2750866048 jsx-2919720488\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"right-chevron\" style=\"mask:url(https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/RightChevron.272be43c.svg?cors=1) no-repeat center center \/ contain;background:currentColor\"\/><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/output><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">J League\u2019s current catchphrase is \u201cEvolution! The J League is evolving,\u201d and of course, Pok\u00e9mon evolve too if you train them up right. The collaboration officially launches on August 7, with 1 million Pok\u00e9mon eco bags in 60 different designs to be handed out to attendees at each respective club\u2019s home ground. On the front of each bag is the club\u2019s partner Pok\u00e9mon, and on the reverse is a special Pikachu design. There are also plans to sell collaboration merchandise, so soccer and Pok\u00e9mon fans should watch this space.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">After Japan&#8217;s impressive showing at the World Cup, which ended after the Samurai Blue conceded a 96th minute winner to Brazil in the round of 32, attention in the country turns to the next season of the J League, which kicks off in August. Kashima Antlers are the defending champions, having won a record-extending ninth J.League title on the last matchday of the 2025 season.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><em>Photo by Masashi Hara\/Getty Images.<\/em><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><em>Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/the-pokemon-company-just-matched-each-of-japans-top-professional-soccer-teams-to-a-pokemon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pok\u00e9mon Company announced a collaboration today with J League, Japan\u2019s top professional soccer association. As part of the Pok\u00e9mon 30th anniversary celebrations, each of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[10346,5422,12223,9760,2879,19254],"class_list":["post-66572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-collaboration","tag-japans","tag-kicks","tag-league","tag-pokemon","tag-soccer","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/66573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}