On what date did the Japanese Pokémon Trading Card Game first launch?

The Japanese Pokémon Trading Card Game first launched on October 20, 1996.

The first release was the 1st Starter & Expansion Pack, published in Japan by Media Factory. It formed the foundation of the trading card game and included cards based on Pokémon from the first-generation video games.

The Japanese launch came only months after Pokémon Red and Green appeared on the Game Boy. The card game extended the franchise’s collecting theme into a physical product that could be played, traded, and displayed outside the video games.

The English version arrived later. In the United States, Base Set was released on January 9, 1999, by Wizards of the Coast. That later date is often mistaken for the global beginning of the Pokémon TCG, but the Japanese card game had already existed for more than two years.