Updated 22 July 2026 · Tracking the cafe's official release announcements.
September 2026 reservations have not been released yet. The cafe's official notice says dates on and after 1 September 2026 "will be announced at a later date". Based on the last three releases, we expect the drop around 1 August 2026 at 6:00pm JST (10am UK, 5am US East). That is our reading of the pattern, not an official date. Every date up to 31 August 2026 is already released and largely sold out, so those dates are cancellation-pickup territory now.
For years the cafe released one new date every evening: at 6:00pm JST each day, the date exactly 31 days ahead opened for booking. That system is gone. Since May 2026, the cafe has released dates in bulk drops (weeks or a whole month at once), each announced a few days in advance on the official Pokemon Cafe news page. There is no daily release any more, for either cafe.
This changes the game for travellers. Under the daily system, missing one evening meant trying again the next. Under the monthly system, a whole month of dates, and a whole month of worldwide demand, hits in a single minute. Popular sessions sell out in seconds, and once the drop passes, the only way into that month is a cancellation pickup.
| Release fired | Dates that opened | Covered |
|---|---|---|
| 17 May 2026, 6:00pm JST | 17 June – 7 July 2026 | Tokyo (reopening release) |
| 7 June 2026, 6:00pm JST | 8 – 31 July 2026 | Both cafes |
| 1 July 2026, 6:00pm JST | 1 – 31 August 2026 | Both cafes |
| Expected ~1 August 2026, 6:00pm JST | September 2026 (not yet announced) | Both cafes (expected) |
The first bulk drop came with the Tokyo cafe's post-renovation reopening, and the pattern stuck: the 7 June drop covered Osaka too, and the 1 July drop opened all of August for both cafes in one go. The cafe has not promised the monthly pattern is permanent: each drop is announced individually on its news page, which is exactly why this page tracks them.
6:00pm JST is 10:00am UK summer time, 9:00am UK winter, 5:00am US East Coast, 2:00am US West Coast, and 7:00pm Australia East.
If you want to try manually, three things genuinely help:
And be honest with yourself about the odds: an entire month of global demand now competes in one minute, against bots that finish the form in under a second.
Tell us your September dates now. The moment the release fires, our bot competes for your exact dates at machine speed, and if it misses, it keeps watching for cancellations around the clock. Flat £8 for the whole party (up to 6 guests), full automatic refund if we can't get any of your dates.
Queue my September dateIf your trip falls on or before 31 August 2026, your date has already been released, and if the calendar shows nothing left, the drop is over for you. But seats still move every single day: the cafe lets customers cancel up to 10pm JST the night before their visit, and every cancelled seat becomes bookable again the instant it is freed, at a completely unpredictable moment. Catching one by hand means refreshing the calendar all day; our scanner does exactly that, around the clock, and books the first opening that matches your request. Read more in our cancellation timing guide.
Not announced yet. The official notice says September dates "will be announced at a later date". Pattern says: around 1 August 2026 at 6:00pm JST. The confirmed date will appear here once the cafe announces it.
6:00pm Japan Standard Time on release day, for every drop so far. The cadence changed in 2026 (monthly-ish bulks instead of daily), but the hour has stayed the same.
August was fully released on 1 July 2026 and most sessions sold out within minutes. Remaining seats appear only as cancellations, right up to 10pm JST the night before each visit date.
Yes. Since the 7 June 2026 drop, the bulk releases have covered both the Osaka (Shinsaibashi) and Tokyo (Nihonbashi) cafes together.