TOPPAN Develops Japan's First Light-Blocking Paper Pillow Packaging for Trading Cards

TOPPAN Inc. (Headquarters: Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo; President: Haruhiko Noguchi; hereafter "TOPPAN"), a group company of TOPPAN Holdings, has developed Japan's first light-blocking paper pillow packaging (hereafter "this product") for trading cards. Sample shipments to domestic and international trading card manufacturers will begin in June 2026.

This product achieves zero plastic usage by replacing conventional plastic packaging with paper through a unique material composition. In addition, its high light-blocking rate of 98% or more resolves the issue of content transparency, which is a common challenge for paper packaging. This deters the "searching" behavior for rare cards before opening while maintaining a metallic design texture. Furthermore, by developing dedicated equipment that suppresses wrinkles during the bag-making process, a high-quality finish is achieved.

Stable mass production will begin in the fall of 2026, contributing to globally accelerating initiatives to reduce environmental impact.

Background of Development

In recent years, the domestic trading card market has continued to expand rapidly, with the market size in FY2024 exceeding 300 billion yen, approximately three times that of FY2019. Collaborations with various industries and companies, such as apparel brands and restaurant chains, are also increasing, establishing it as a culture that transcends generations and borders.

On the other hand, in response to growing global environmental awareness, regulations on packaging materials, particularly in Europe, and demands for suppressing greenhouse gas emissions such as CO2, as well as de-plasticization, are intensifying. Consequently, environmentally friendly design is strongly required by trading card manufacturers expanding globally.

However, in adopting paper materials for trading card packaging, realizing advanced light-blocking performance to securely protect the contents and prevent "searching" behavior where rare cards are identified before opening, establishing technology to form without wrinkles, and maintaining a high-quality production system have been critical challenges.

Therefore, TOPPAN has utilized its cultivated paper packaging development and production technology to promote optimal material selection and the development of dedicated bag-making equipment. This approach prevents content transparency, a weakness of paper materials, while reducing wrinkles and establishing a stable supply system for high-quality paper pillow packaging.

Features of This Product

- **Achieves Zero Plastic Usage** General plastic packaging consists of a material composition combining plastic materials for structural strength and sealant layers for adhesion. This product achieves zero plastic usage through a unique material composition consisting solely of a heat-sealable coat layer and paper material. In addition, because the paper weight ratio is 51% or more in Japan, the "Paper mark" can be applied to the package, visualizing and promoting the company's resource circulation initiatives.

- **High Light-Blocking Performance and Metallic Texture Prevent Pre-opening "Searching" Behavior** By applying aluminum vapor deposition to the paper material, a high light-blocking rate of 98% or more was achieved. By blocking the transparency of the contents, which is a weakness of paper materials, and making it impossible to identify the cards before opening, "searching" behavior for rare cards is prevented. Additionally, the structure, which applies printing directly on the aluminum vapor deposition layer, expresses a metallic texture, enabling high design reproduction and vivid coloring equivalent to conventional plastic packaging.

- **Achieves a High-Quality Finish Minimizing Wrinkles Despite Being Made of Paper** For the independently developed dedicated bag-making machine, jigs for the folding section were developed and feeding rollers were improved to suppress wrinkles in the paper pillow packaging and realize high-speed folding. The introduction of this bag-making machine has reduced the occurrence of wrinkles, a common weakness of paper materials, and established a stable supply system for high-quality packaging. Mass production on a dedicated line will start in the fall of 2026.

Future Goals

TOPPAN aims to establish an annual supply system of 30 million packs upon the start of mass production in the fall of 2026, targeting sales of 1 billion yen, including related orders, by 2030.

Through the provision of this product, TOPPAN will continue to contribute to the environmental initiatives and globalization support of domestic and international trading card manufacturers and related companies.