McDonald’s Japan has indefinitely postponed their upcoming campaign with the One Piece Card Game, which was scheduled to start on August 29th, 2025.
The move came after the controversy surrounding their previous campaign with the Pokémon Trading Card Game from August 9th to 11th, which resulted in McDonald’s locations being swarmed with customers trying to purchase the Happy Meal set in bulk.
At the time, McDonald’s Japan released a statement urging customers to refrain from buying more than five Pokémon Happy Meals per order to ensure that children would be able to enjoy the limited-edition Pokémon cards. However, the campaign received several complaints relating food wastage and cards being resold in bulk.
On August 11th, McDonald’s Japan released an apology statement for an “inadequate response” to the campaign fallout. The statement was as follows:
“McDonald’s does not tolerate the purchase of Happy Meals for resale or the abandonment and disposal of food. This situation clearly violates our long-held philosophy of “providing a fun dining experience for children and families” and our restaurant stance, and we sincerely acknowledge that our response was inadequate.“
On August 20th, McDonald’s Japan then released a statement postponing the One Piece Card Game campaign:
“As part of our review of Happy Set-related measures, we have postponed the Happy Set campaign, which was scheduled to start on Friday, August 29th. During this period, customers purchasing Happy Set will be provided with toys and other items distributed in past campaigns.
Although some media are planning to publish advance notice articles regarding the campaign, please refrain from contacting rights holders, manufacturers, or published media.“
While the statement did not come with a formal cancellation of the One Piece Card Game campaign, it doesn’t look like McDonald’s Japan will be moving forward with it any time soon. This aligns with McDonald’s plans to work with known reselling websites to curb reselling as much as possible, although the company did not disclose any further details.
