Mercari shares climbed more than 4% on Friday, extending their rebound from a selloff triggered by the Japanese online marketplace’s restrictions on listings of Pokémon’s 30th anniversary products, announced Tuesday.

The company said the limits will stay in effect for as long as it believes a safe and secure trading environment cannot be guaranteed.

Its stock closed 6.4% lower on Wednesday, the day the restrictions began, before rebounding to finish 1.4% higher on Thursday.

The shares were also outperforming the Nikkei 225 on Friday morning, with the index up about 1%.

Mercari said it introduced the temporary listing ban because of concerns that a spike in transactions after the anniversary products’ release could result in trading disputes and harassment of users involved in those transactions.

Citibank linked Wednesday’s drop of more than 6% to Mercari’s announcement of the Pokémon card listing restrictions. The bank said Mercari’s recent share-price weakness had pushed the stock to “overly pessimistic levels,” describing the shares as “oversold” and the decline as an investment opportunity.

Growth in the value of goods sold on Mercari’s marketplace in the second half of fiscal 2026 surpassed expectations, while a rebound across several categories could support double-digit growth, the bank added.

Citi also said the suspension of trading in certain products was unfavorable for Mercari, but added that the effect was not large enough to cause the bank to change its forecasts.

The restrictions arrive during a worldwide Pokémon card boom. Online marketplace eBay said “Pokémon” was searched more than six million times on its U.K. site in July, highlighting ongoing demand for trading cards.

Pokémon card prices have risen 1,350% since 2020, according to an index compiled by Collectors, which owns card grading agency Professional Sports Authenticator, Verum previously reported. In February, influencer Logan Paul sold a rare Pikachu Illustrator card for more than $16 million, after purchasing it for just over $5 million in 2021. New cards can sell out within minutes, with people coordinating on X and Discord to find out where to go.

A post on X this month claimed that a Pokémon card sold for $2.7 million at auction, setting a record.

Mercari signed an agreement with The Pokémon Company in 2023 to encourage safer trading of Pokémon products on its marketplace, and introduced a policy in 2025 that allows it to restrict listings when issues such as fraud, transaction disputes or extreme price swings threaten marketplace safety.

The Bank of Japan has raised its policy rate by 25 basis points to 1.25%, the highest level since 1995.

The move also marked a quickening in the BOJ’s rate hike cycle since it started monetary policy normalization in March 2024, with the rise taking place three months from the BOJ’s last hike, as compared to six months previously.

The decision was split 7-2, with board members Toichiro Asada and Ayano Sato dissenting from the hike. The duo are seen as reflationists and were appointed by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi earlier this year.

The rise in rate hikes was widely expected, with almost 90% of economists surveyed by CNBC expecting the 25-basis-point tightening. Those surveyed also correctly predicted the dissenters to the decision.

In its statement, the BOJ said the move was because of a risk that inflation will deviate upward to beyond its 2% target.

The central bank added that it aims to stabilize underlying inflation at “around 2%” so that price rises do not overshoot its target and adversely affect the Japanese economy afterward.

The hike comes amid rising inflation in the country and a historically weak yen, with the latest inflation headline rate for August at 1.9% and Tokyo and Washington conducting a coordinated intervention to prop up the yen.

The currency traded at 156.64 after the decision, weakening 0.45%, while the benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond yield fell 4.9 basis points to 2.947%.

Dissenter Asada noted that as the core inflation rate was below 2%, he was of the view that the economic situation may not be strong, and instead advocated for a hold. Core inflation for August stood at 1.7%, down from 1.8% in July.

Sato also said current economic and price developments did not appear to have substantially accelerated compared to before.

The U.S. has been vocal about Japan continuing its rate-hiking cycle, pressuring Takaichi’s preference for an easy monetary policy and an expansionary fiscal policy.

Most recently, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda to take “decisive market and monetary steps” at the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting earlier this month.

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