Pokémon Go Wild Area 2026, taking place in the Japanese city of Sendai from November 6 to 8, overlaps with Tohoku University’s special admission exam on November 7. With hotels booked solid by event attendees, room rates soared and applicants traveling from outside the city struggled to find a place to stay.
According to the Japanese newspaper Niigata Nippo, as reported by Oyun Günlüğü, the event is expected to draw around 400,000 attendances from around the world, pushing the price of a single night without meals at one Sendai business hotel to 40,170 yen. While the city that brought the event to Sendai highlights its economic impact, school officials have pushed back, saying “Exams require a calm environment.”
Hotels sold out in two hours
Bookings flooded Sendai’s hotels as soon as the event was announced in mid-July. A 35-room hotel near Tsutsujigaoka Park, one of the main venues, sold out for November 6 and 7 in under two hours. In a city with around 35,000 hotel rooms, some hotels raised single rooms to around 70,000 yen per night. Tohoku University expects more than 1,000 applicants from outside Miyagi Prefecture.
City and university step in
In August, Sendai asked hotel associations to share information on vacancies and cancellations, while the university launched an accommodation support site for applicants. About 1,500 rooms were set aside, though many are outside Miyagi. The university also arranged shuttle buses from Fukushima Station to its exam campuses, and a student housing operator opened 50 vacant rooms to applicants free of charge.
At a press conference on November 4, Sendai Mayor Kazuko Kōri said a reasonable number of rooms had been secured. According to the city, at least 70 rooms are listed as available on travel sites, mostly around 20,000 yen. The city noted that prices, which hit the 70,000 yen range right after the announcement, have since eased, and it will add extra subway services during the event.
Previous events drew huge crowds
Wild Area, which has players explore the city on foot to encounter and battle new Pokémon, drew around 420,000 people over three days in Nagasaki in 2025. Sendai hosted Pokémon Go Fest in 2024, attracting around 370,000 attendees and generating an estimated economic impact of 7.4 billion yen. This year, Sendai is the only Wild Area host city in Japan.
