How to tell Japanese, Korean and Chinese Pokémon cards apart

Last updated 15 September 2026.

The same card number is often four different cards. Pikachu 081/S-P is a Traditional Chinese card. At that exact number, Japanese is a Hoopa, Korean is a Lugia, and Simplified Chinese is a Supporter called Friends in Alola.

Plenty of listings get this wrong. This page starts with the one field on the card that answers it, then covers what to check when that field is not enough.

On this page

• The set code box, which answers it outright
• Why Korean and Japanese look identical there
• The copyright line, a second check
• Traditional against Simplified Chinese
• Numbers that are four different cards
• English promo numbering changed twice
• What the graders write on the label
• The Korean slab that should not exist
• What listings get wrong

The set code box, which answers it outright

On the bottom left of every Scarlet and Violet or Mega era card there is a small white box holding a regulation letter, and next to it a black rounded box holding the set code. The language is printed inside that black box, after the set code.

So F is Traditional Chinese, C is Simplified Chinese, EN is English, and those three are settled the moment you read the box. A bare code with no letter narrows it to Japanese or Korean, and then you read the script.

The letter is printed by the publisher, and it is why PSA writes English sets with the token EN-SV in the set name.

Why Korean and Japanese look identical there

Because Korean uses exactly the same set codes as Japanese. A Korean card from the Mega era prints M5 in the box with no language letter, exactly as a Japanese card does, and Korean has its own separate list of cards inside that code.

The same is true of promos. S-P and SV-P are not Japanese-only denominators. Japanese, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Thai and Indonesian all use them, each with a completely separate card list. It is behind a lot of misidentified listings.

Three ways to separate Korean from Japanese when the box cannot:

• Script. Hangul against kana and kanji. And a reliable Japanese tell: Japanese cards carry furigana, the small ruby text set above kanji. Korean never has it.
• The back. Korean cards use the international back, the same one English cards have used since Base Set. If you can see a back photo, this settles it.
• The border, before Scarlet and Violet. Korean cards had flat yellow borders up to the Sword and Shield era, where Japanese had silver. From Scarlet and Violet onward Korean adopted the silver border, so this tell only works on older cards.

Korean cards also put the copyright in the lower left through the Sword and Shield era, where a Japanese card puts its 1st Edition symbol.

The copyright line, a second check

A smaller tell, useful when a photo is too soft to read the set box, and it separates English from everything else:

• English prints ©2025 Pokémon / Nintendo / Creatures / GAME FREAK, with spaces around every slash.
• Japanese, Korean, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese all print it without spaces: ©2026 Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/GAME FREAK.

So the spacing alone tells you whether a card is English.

Traditional against Simplified Chinese

Traditional and Simplified Chinese are separate products with separate card pools, not the same cards printed in two scripts. Their prices differ, and listings often mix them up.

Traditional Chinese did start with its own exclusive sets in 2019 and 2020, coded AC1a, AC2a, AS5a and so on. From Amazing Volt Tackle onward it switched to carrying the Japanese sets, which is why a modern Traditional Chinese card shares its number with the Japanese one.

Simplified Chinese never did that. Take CSV9.5C, the code on Terastal Gathering:

Terastal Gathering holds 259 cards numbered out of 208, and includes a special illustration rare Sylveon ex that exists in no other language. It follows the theme of the Japanese Terastal Fest ex subset without being a translation of it.

Numbers that are four different cards

Two worked examples, both of which sit in this shop.

081/S-P

The Traditional Chinese red envelope pack held seven cards, 077 through 083/S-P, and every one of them is a Pikachu. So a listing that says "081 Pikachu" needs the language as well as the number.

173/SV-P

A Japanese card at that number is an owl. If a listing says 173/SV-P Ditto and calls it Japanese, one of the two claims is wrong.

The same-language version of the trap

Collisions also happen inside one language. SVP 189 is N's Zorua, and there are two prints of it: the Journey Together Elite Trainer Box version and the Journey Together Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Box version. PSA keeps two separate spec records for them, which is a grader stating outright that they are different collectables. Check which one a listing means before you compare prices.

English promo numbering changed twice

If you are reading an English promo number and it looks inconsistent with another one, it probably is:

• SM Black Star Promos, 2016 to 2021: the prefix is part of the printed number, SM01 through SM248.
• SWSH Black Star Promos, 2019 to 2023: SWSH001 through SWSH307.
• SVP Black Star Promos, 2023 to 2025: the prefix was removed from the number. The card prints 189 alone, with SVP EN in the set code box and a black PROMO star where a denominator would sit.

English promos carry no /total. If you see one written as "189/226", someone added the denominator themselves.

What the graders write on the label

PSA's set names follow year, then POKEMON, then the language token, then the set:

Two things to take from that. English is the only language PSA does not name in words; it gets the EN-SV token instead, mirroring what is printed on the card. And older Chinese labels say only CHINESE. PSA used plain 2021 POKEMON CHINESE S PROMO and 2022 POKEMON CHINESE SV PROMO before it split the two scripts apart. On a slab from those years the label cannot tell you whether the card is Traditional or Simplified, so you have to read the card through the holder.

CGC writes the language into the set line instead, in the form Victory Proof, Pokémon (2024) Simplified Chinese Sword & Shield Promo.

The Korean slab that should not exist

TAG does not grade Korean Pokémon cards. Its own eligibility table accepts English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese, and excludes Korean, along with Russian, Italian, German, Spanish, French and Portuguese.

So a TAG holder containing a Korean Pokémon card is a reason to stop and look harder. Either the card is not Korean, or the slab is not what it appears to be.

What listings get wrong

1. Treating S-P and SV-P as Japanese. Five languages use those denominators with entirely separate card lists.
2. Calling a Traditional Chinese card "Chinese". They are separate products, sold in different markets at different prices.
3. Reading a 2021 PSA "CHINESE" label as Simplified. PSA had not split the scripts yet.
4. Assuming a Simplified Chinese set is a translation of the Japanese set with a similar name. Different card count, different numbering, sometimes exclusive cards.
5. Assuming any Asian language card with a bare set code is Japanese. It is Japanese or Korean. Check for Hangul, check for furigana, check the back.
6. Adding a denominator to an SVP promo number. They do not have one.

We have had to correct several of these in our own listings. Every listing here now names the language and the print explicitly, because the number on its own does not identify a card.

Prints in stock

• Japanese cards
• Promos, where most of these collisions live
• All graded slabs

If you want the label side of this, read how to read a PSA, CGC or TAG label before you buy.