Pokémon Go captures fans at home launch

Office workers and children on school holidays streamed out onto Tokyo’s streets yesterday to play Pokémon Go after the hit mobile game was released in its home country.

Anticipation had been building for weeks in Japan, the country that gave birth to the franchise two decades ago.

The smartphone game, which topped the country’s download charts just like it did on its US debut earlier this month, lets users collect virtual ‘pocket mon-sters’ scattered around the city on a digital map and battle them against each other.