Some 50 life-size Pikachu characters, the most famous from the Pokemon game, marched along the city’s waterfront street as visitors took mobile phone pictures and videos of them in scorching sunshine.
Some participants said they attended the event to search for rare characters of Pokémon – a word short for “pocket monster” – for the megahit smartphone app, which was launched in July globally.
“I came here all the way to Yokohama, hoping to find different kinds of Pokemon characters,” said Teruko Fujisawa, a 45-year-old woman working at a trading house.
Pokémon Go is currently the number one app on IOS and Google Play marketplaces and has overtaken Twitter for daily active users.