Nippon: Zaibatsu

Objective and mode: Manage an industrial zaibatsu through investment, factories, production, local markets, contracts, railroads, ships, and technology. The game has three Periods, each ending in regional Influence scoring, followed by final corporate scoring. The highest total wins. CrowD lists 1–4 players, 60–120 minutes, and age 15+; the rules include a competitive solo Automa.

Setup and resources: Use Demand tiles to set regional markets, then randomly place Workers in the Hiring area and Worker Queue. Each player takes a Zaibatsu board, starting factory, ships, machines, trains, Influence, Contracts, Favor, and track markers. Starting tokens give asymmetric resources and bonuses. Resources include Money, Coal, Goods, Silk, and Iron; Silk can be used as money at 1:1, while Iron is used for Ships, Trains, and Machine upgrades.

Normal turn: Choose a Main Board action, take one Worker from the matching Hiring space, place it in the lowest empty Worker space on your board, and resolve the action. You must be able to resolve the chosen action at least once, though many actions allow multiple activations. If you do not want or cannot act, or need to clear your Worker area, Consolidate. Worker colors are primarily tied to Department bonuses and are not a universal restriction on taking the action.

Nine action types: R&D and Mining advance tracks; Factory builds and activates a factory; Machines upgrade factories and Production increases goods output; Trains and Ships expand regional or diplomatic influence and provide workers or Department upgrades; Investment & Contracts converts resources into finance or contract rewards; Local Markets spends goods to place or replace Influence in regions and collect bonuses. Costs and repeat activations depend on the action and available resources.

Workers and rounds: At the end of a turn, a round ends if a Hiring space is empty and the Worker Queue cannot refill it. Check whether the current Period’s last round has been reached and score Influence if so, then advance the marker. In ordinary rounds, add one worker to each Hiring space with fewer than three and rebuild the Queue for the player count. The final limited-turn sequence uses a separate procedure without worker replenishment.

Consolidation: With at least one worker, take a Favor token beside the topmost worker and place it on an empty Personal Objective space, where it stays. Discard all Money and Coal, retaining Silk, Iron and Goods. Gain the lowest worker’s Department reward; only with at least four workers and different top/bottom colors also gain the top reward. Gain Mining and Finance income, pay three Money per worker color while retaining the last Money, lose one point per unpaid Money, and return the workers.

Regional Influence scoring: At the end of each Period, score regions one by one, comparing player Influence and qualifying Trains together with the printed Overseas Companies. Award points by rank; tied players split the relevant rank values, rounded down. Overseas Companies affect rank but do not accumulate player points. In a two-player game, remove the second-place value. Influence placement and railroad choices can affect both period scoring and an opponent’s market space.

Final three turns: When the first marker reaches the first bright space occupied by the second marker, give the second marker to the player on the left. Beginning there, every player has three turns total remaining. Advance the marker after everyone has taken one turn, without refilling Hiring or the Queue. After those three turns each and the last Influence scoring, all players perform Final Consolidation simultaneously, even with no workers. Do not add a fourth personal turn.

Final scoring: Favor tokens on Personal Objectives determine what scores and at which level. Ships, Machines, Trains and the R&D, Mining and Finance tracks score 5/8/10 for level-1/2/3 Favor at the lower threshold, or 10/16/20 at the upper threshold. Factories and Contracts use the rightmost position’s printed value for the Favor level. Do not score those same assets independently again. Combined Goods, Coal, Silk and Iron yield one point per three, and Money one per five, discarding remainders. Most points wins; the tied player taking the final turn last wins.

Edition and solo boundaries: BGG 434367 is the tenth-anniversary reimagining, not the 2015 Nippon ruleset. Standard and Emperor’s Editions share core rules, while the latter includes extra content; use the specific box setup for Late-Game Factories and Common Goals. The base game includes a competitive solo Automa. A July 2026 errata item is listed on BGG, but its text was not verified here, so no unconfirmed factory cap or ship-building exception is asserted.