Japan Just Opened Its First Pokémon Theme Park, and It’s Not in Tokyo

Something opened in Japan this year that I did not see coming, and I have been watching Japan travel news for a long time. PokéPark Kanto, the first permanent outdoor Pokémon theme park in the world, opened this spring inside Yomiuriland, the amusement park that sits on the border of Tokyo and Kanagawa.

It is not in central Tokyo. It is not a day trip you stumble into. It sits between Inagi on the Tokyo side and Kawasaki on the Kanagawa side, about 30 to 40 minutes out from the city. You get there on the Keio Sagamihara Line to Keio-Yomiuriland Station, then a gondola ride up the hill, or the Odakyu line to Yomiuriland-mae and a short bus. Either way it is its own outing, not something you tack onto a Shibuya afternoon.

Inside, it splits into two zones. Pokémon Forest is a nature trail with over 600 static Pokémon models tucked into the landscape, the kind of thing where you are looking for them the way you would on a scavenger hunt. Sedge Town is the plaza side, with a Pokémon Center, a Poké Mart, a Trainer’s Market, a gym, character greetings and a parade.

Here is what I would tell a family before they book it. This is a half day commitment once you count the train and gondola. It is worth it if you have a kid who is actually into Pokémon, not just aware of it. If your trip already has Tokyo Disneyland, teamLab, Ghibli Museum and a couple of shrines stacked into five days, I would not force this in on top. I would swap it in for one of those, not add it as a sixth thing.

Ticket sales for it started in autumn 2025 and pricing was still rolling out as it opened, which tells you it is new enough that even the Japanese travel sites do not have a settled routine for it yet. That is exactly the kind of thing worth having someone check current numbers on before you build a day around it, because a brand new attraction changes its own rules in the first year more than an established one ever will.

This is the piece I like about Japan right now. Everyone assumes the whole country runs through Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, and mostly your first trip should. But there is always something new sitting one train ride outside the obvious loop, and it is usually worth knowing about before you lock the itinerary, not after.

If you are working through a full Japan itinerary and trying to figure out what actually earns a spot on it, that is the whole point of my Japan family travel guide. Start there and we can talk about where something like PokéPark Kanto fits for your family, or if it does not.