Tokyo opened the first official Pokémon Center store.
The first Pokémon Center opened in Tokyo, Japan, in 1998. These stores were created as dedicated retail spaces for Pokémon video games, cards, toys, clothing, stationery, and other branded products. The concept gave fans a physical destination centered entirely on the franchise.
The original store was in Nihonbashi, a district of Tokyo. Pokémon Centers later expanded to other Japanese cities and became important locations for limited merchandise, special game distributions, and promotional events.
Pokémon Center is also the name used for official online stores and international retail locations. That can cause confusion with ordinary game features: in the Pokémon video games, a Pokémon Center is a healing facility, while the real-world Pokémon Center is a branded shop. The Tokyo store belongs to the franchise’s commercial history, not to the fictional world of the games.