Poké Lids - The manhole covers scattered around Japan

[WailordEnthusiast]

Poké Lids / Pokéfuta (ポケふた) are artistically designed manhole covers with Pokémon-themed motifs that can be found all over Japan. The featured Pokémon and their surroundings tend to be related to the region were the Poké Lids are placed: the Poké Lids in the Kansai/Kinki region for example often depict Pokémon from Johto and Poké Lids placed on islands or near harbours tend to include water types etc. The Poké Lid logo includes a little diglett, perhaps to indicate that the holes being covered up by the Lids were originally dug by digletts.

As of July 3rd 2024 there are a total of 354 Poké Lid designs placed all over Japan.

The following images show six examples of Poké Lid designs and then a photograph I took of one of them in the city of Kyoto.

The Poké Lids will always show the name of the municipality and the names of the main featured Pokémon(s) on the border (with very rare exceptions like the first Yokohama Pikachu) plus the pokemon copyright.

Artistic Manhole covers have a long tradition in Japan. Ever since the 1970s more and more municipalities have opted to introduce uniquely designed manhole covers for their streets and the practice has garnered many fans to the point where manhole collectibles now exist. For more information on Japanese manhole covers and their production I recommend this Atlas Obscura article and this video documentary on YouTube.
Many of the roughly 90 kg heavy cast iron manhole covers are hand-painted and the designs range from featuring landmarks to celebrating firefighters, local sports teams or cultural festivals.
A selection of different designs I took photos of in Japan:

Often times the same manhole cover design can be found multiple times throughout the municipality, whereas for the Pokémon themed Poké Lids every manhole cover is unique.

Poké Lids started being placed in 2018 as a part of the Pokémon Local Acts program which aims to boost local tourism and enterprises. Through the Pokémon local acts program certain regions have been assigned an “Ambassadorial Pokémon” which is said to best represent the region’s charms.

Prefectures with Ambassadorial Pokémon are Miyazaki (Exeggutor), Hokkaido (Vulpix & Alolan Vulpix), Iwate (Geodude), Miyagi (Lapras), Fukushima (Chansey), Fukui (Dragonite), Mie (Oshawott), Tottori (Sandshrew & Alolan Sandshrew), Kagawa (Slowpoke) and Nagasaki (Ampharos).

If a prefecture has an Ambassadorial Pokémon then the Pokémon will be featured on all the region’s Poké Lids.

All Poké Lids and their exact locations can be found on the Poké Lid site which is available in Japanese, English, traditional & simplified Chinese, as well as Korean. The site divides Japan into broader regions but it also allows to individually search for the main Pokémon featured on each Lid.
Something to note however: background Pokémon are not counted, so if for example you were to search for Poké Lids featuring Wailord, then only the one in Okinawa will pop up with the one in the background of the following Nagasaki Poké Lid not registering:

There are really many beautiful designs and I recommend taking the time and just going through each region to admire the artworks. The illustrators are generally not published however sowsow, Kyoko Umemoto and Lee HyunJung are known to have contributed.

Along with the Poké Lids the Pokémon company has created merchandise to go along with them. As far as I know and please correct me if I am wrong, originally this was done in spirit with the mission to boost Japan’s local tourism industry and these were only supposed to be sold locally, however in the wake of the COVID 19 pandemic and the resulting collapse of domestic travel the merchandise became available to be ordered online via the village vanguard online store.
The merchandise is out of sale by now with the link of the sales page redirecting to the store’s homepage, so the best bet to pick it up is second-hand on Japanese online market places.
Available merchandise included painted 90 mm diameter metal replicas, ceramic mugs with rubber lids, post cards, a collection album for the post cards, large size stickers, badges and rubber keychains. The mugs and metal replicas were generally only available for select Poké Lids while the other merchandise was available for every design of a prefecture that made the selection.

While new Poké Lids keep being added unfortunately the Pokémon company seems to have stopped producing new merchandise for them with the latest release information being made public on the village vanguard site on the 29th of July 2022 which means that not every design was ever available for sale. Then on the 28th of February 2023 village vanguard started selling off the remaining stock by giving 50% discount on every item which might be an indication that the sales figures were lower than expected.
A list of the available merchandise can be found on the archived Village Vanguard sales page.

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When I went to Japan in February of 2023 photographing all the different manhole cover designs quickly became one of my favourite activities and I soon found myself scanning the sidewalks looking for the next designs. As for the Pokémon themed ones I looked up their locations beforehand and then when I was in the area I took little detours to grab a picture. I can whole heartedly recommend hunting these, it’s a great way to discover parts of cities that you would have usually not gone to, plus it’s free.

All the Poké Lids that I have seen in person:

The metal replica Lids that I own (the Wailord ones are not official since they unfortunately never released merchandise for Okinawa):

Weighing in at about 340 grammes they are quite hefty. They’re also thicker than they appear when placed inside their display box.

In the future I would love to visit the Wailord themed Poké Lid on the Okinawa main island myself.

Edit: I improved the image quality which had suffered a bit in the previous post
Edit2: Added a link to the archived Village Vanguard shop site

[eievui]

I remember thinking of buying one of these a few years ago as I was under the impression they were made to order. Theyd look awesome as a display piece for a collection. I love how they adorn the streets as well.

[WailordEnthusiast]

There was surprisingly a very small restock of many different merchandise items on the 18th of June this year including the Eevee metal replica and other popular designs like the Yokohama Pikachu pair (I signed up for the notification mails). They were all gone within less than an hour however.
That was right before they vanished from the Village vanguard website for good.
So I wonder if it was perhaps from forgotten inventory and store invetory that they sent back to the warehouse.

[WailordEnthusiast]

Of the Keychains that I own, the ones I bought off the village vanguard site came in random (gacha) packaging, so you did not know which design you were getting, while the ones I bought locally at the Ojiya Koi museum came in clear packaging.

I’m not sure if the difference is because of where I bought them or if it’s due to the different product lines (Niigata/Ojiya vs. Kyoto).

Edit: Looking at listings on mercari japan, you can find the Ojiya/Niigata Poké Lid keychains in the Gacha random packaging aswell so I think it’s due to where I bought them (or perhaps they are from an earlier production run, I would not rule that out either).

Edit: Here is an image of the sale display in Ojiya

[jaxlax21]

What a great write-up on these! There are 3 Greninja Poke Lids that I am aware of, all located in Koka, Shiga Prefecture.

I haven’t been able to fine if there was ever any merch made of these ones specifically. Would be cool to have, but I have no idea if any were ever made.

[Gstiess92]

First of all, I love your post. It is really well written.

I have been to Japan twice and loved seeing all the amazing lids they have over there. Was really happy to have found some Pokémon ones as well while being there. Will be back in Japan this Winter and will definitely use the map of your post to search for even more Pokémon lids.

I did not know about the keychains, but they look amazing. Hopefully I can find some of those in a second hand store in Japan because I definitely wanna have one of those.

[WailordEnthusiast]

I looked into it, these Greninja Poké Lids were installed in February of 2022. As such they are too new to have merchandise.

Interestingly the city is known for their Ninjas so the choice of pokémon is very fitting. 滋賀で発見！ポケモンマンホール『ポケふた』 - 滋賀・びわ湖。お出かけ虹色ブログ｜滋賀の観光旬ネタはコレ！

there seem to be pamphlets for tourists though

[WailordEnthusiast]

I’m glad you liked it, feel free to share pictures of any Poké Lids you come across!

The merch is still pretty abundant on sites like e.g. mercari, so if you can’t find any in person, it should still be possible to pick them up that way!

[jaxlax21]

Koka is well known for its Ninja history. The Koga clan, in particular. Which is part of Greninja’s Japanese name, Gekkouga.

[expedition]

Heres some that I found :).

[lyleberr]

I want all of these and am having to restrain myself from throwing my wallet at the computer screen. Thank you for the writeup and wonderful information about them, the art on them looks so amazing!

[quuador]

It’s too bad the newer ones don’t have merchandise. I’d love to have some merchandise of the Seviper one, made by sowsow:

As a compromise, I currently have a news paper article (Sanspo Newspaper Special of August 2nd, 2022) that mentions how they were made and shows all of the ones that were made prior to that date:

EDIT:

@WailordEnthusiast

there seem to be pamphlets for tourists though

If you know whether there is a similar pamphlet featuring the Seviper/Zangoose one from Cape Chinen in Okinawa, lmk.

Greetz,
Quuador

[WailordEnthusiast]

I love that newspaper page, it’s great! Really cool to see. I didn’t know that existed. The making of process is quite interesting to me, the video I linked in the original post shows the entire process in detail with English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OYPWgzDBxE and from the pictures in your newspaper it seems identical

I sadly don’t know if there are pamphlets for Okinawa, when I tried to search for them nothing came up, but if I see anything, I’ll definitely let you know.

[tediorso]

I wonder if we’ll ever see any on the secondary market.

I had a studio mate who used NYC manhole covers for a sculpture project.

[WailordEnthusiast]

Do you mean the actual ones?
Manhole Covers have a life span of around thirty years, so the Poké Lids still have a lot of life in them before they have to be replaced eventually.

If they ever go on sale I would expect a lot of competition, seeing how well regular manhole covers are already doing when being sold off: Manhole covers become collector’s items in Japan | Japan | The Guardian

[fourthstartcg]

I love these manhole covers and I only wish they made more merch for all of them! I have a few of the replica metal covers (Bulbasaur, Gyarados, Ho-Oh) and I can definitely testify to their quality. They are very heavy and the enamel finish is excellent. I usually display them alongside some cards.

If the actual covers ever come up for sale I think I would not be alone in putting up an exorbitant sum of money to own one. If this was the US they would have all been stolen I’m sure.

[tediorso]

Yeah I totally meant actual ones.

thanks for even more fascinating info. I’m not surprised at all though. They are so unique; industrial yet ornate. Reminds me of these sidewalk mandalas around Kathmandu.

So it’s likely some could end up on the secondary market legally within a few decades?

[lookaclara]

Thanks for your great post, I love seeing these a lot! Last summer in Yokohama, my spouse and I were on a mission to find the 5 nearby. We were following the map but got very distracted in Chinatown and some nearby parks, and ended up way off course, off the map entirely lol. So we had to find the last two the next day in a rush before we needed to check out of the hotel and catch our train. Through blood, sweat and tears (mostly sweat), we got pics with them! I’d love to return to Japan soon and find more!

[WailordEnthusiast]

There’s a subreddit I enjoy browsing which, despite its name, is completely SFW: https://www.reddit.com/r/manholeporn/top/?t=all

lots of cool designs there, not just from Japan.

If the Poké Lids will ever be for sale is a good question, what’s without doubt is that they will have to be replaced eventually. But what will happen to them then is up for the individual cities and the pokemon company to decide

[salaryyy]

Spotted this one last year in Kagawa!