Niantic has announced that a Pokémon GO Special Weekend will take place in Japan from July 26th, 2018 until July 29th, 2018. Official partners will be helping support this event. The Pokémon GO Special Weekend is an in-game event that requires that players get a participation ticket with a barcode on it by visiting an official partners PokéStop and Check-in. After checking in, players can participate in the event anywhere in Japan except for some islands. If a players leaves Japan, they can't participate in the event.


The event is scheduled to be held from 10am until 8pm daily from July 26th, 2018 until July 29th, 2018. Those that participate in the event, will have double the XP during the event and a higher chance of meeting some special Pokémon.

Participation Tickets can be obtained by answering questionnaires and shopping at the following Pokémon GO official partners: McDonald's, TOHO Cinemas, Softbank, Tully's Coffee, Aeon and Joyfull. Participation Tickets will be available to obtain at different times depending on the official partner. Tickets from TOHO Cinemas, Tully's Coffee and Joyfull are the same regardless of which store you get it from.

McDonald's - Starting July 11th, 2018
TOHO Cinemas - Starting July 13th, 2018
SoftBank / Y Mobile - Starting July 5th, 2018
Tully's Coffee - Starting July 24th, 2018
Aeon - Starting July 13th, 2018
Joyfull - Starting July 17th, 2018 at 15:00

The Pokémon available differs depending on the official sponsor:
July 26th, 2018 - Softbank - Unown S, B and Charmander
July 27th, 2018 - Toho Cinemas, Tully's Coffee and Joyfull - Unown T, J and Squirtle
July 28th, 2018 - McDonalds - Unown M, D and Pikachu
July 29th, 2018 - Aeon - Unown A, E and Bulbasaur

Source: https://pokemongolive.com/ja/post/2018japanspecialweekend/