Nippon: Zaibatsu FAQ
104 questions players ask · Updated Nov 10, 2026 · Full rulebook
Components
Setup
- Can you spend the 2 Goods from a starting token before you build a Factory?
- Are the starting token's 3 Coal or its other one-time bonuses refilled or reusable later in the game?
- What does the Old Factory starting tile do, and is its bonus one-time or ongoing?
- Can the Old Factory store excess goods, or receive goods from other factories?
- Which areas of the Worker Queue are filled at setup in a 2-player, 3-player or 4-player game?
- How do you unlock the three influence tokens locked in your Zaibatsu at the start?
- Does the starting token that cuts Factory costs by 2 Money apply for the whole game?
General Concepts
Gameplay
- Does the round end when one Hiring space is empty and no Workers can be moved from the Worker Queue?
- When a Hiring space empties mid-round, how many Workers come out of the Worker Queue, and from which row?
- When the Worker Queue runs out, does the round end right away, or only when a Hiring space next needs a refill?
- Can you pay for each activation of an action separately, so the rewards from one activation fund the next?
- How do you refill the last row of the Worker Queue when it holds only one Worker in a 4-player game?
Actions
- Does spending Silk when building a Factory move my R&D marker up the track?
- Can you take the R&D action when your marker is already on the last R&D space?
- Do you get the Finance track's end bonus again when a Factory moves your marker back and you pass it again?
- Can you resolve an unlocked Department bonus after the Expert Worker and upgrade from building a Ship?
- Does taking the Ship action cost you two Workers?
- If your action fills your last Workers slot, can you still build a Ship that needs an Expert Worker placed?
- Can you send a Ship to a Destination whose Expert Worker has already been taken?
- Does the Machines action cost 5 Money per Machine, or 5 in total for up to three Machines?
- Can you build two Machines in the same Factory with one Machines action?
- Do bonuses between the Ships, Machines and Trains spaces need both adjacent spaces filled?
- How many points does the yellow Foreign Affairs Department bonus give?
- Can you spend extra Coal in one Factory to produce more Goods in a single Production action?
- If one action builds Trains in several Regions, or a Factory grants a Region bonus, do you get the bonus from every Region?
Factories
- Do you still pay the iron printed on a Factory's second Machine space when a factory bonus builds the Machine?
- Can more than one Factory ability trigger in a single action or turn?
- Do Factory effects that place Machines or Goods trigger another Factory's action bonus or ability?
- Does a Factory with a square action icon trigger every time that main-board action is used?
- Does a Factory's R&D bonus double the R&D movement when you pay for more spaces?
- When a Factory bonus triggers Produce, do you still pay the Coal?
- Do builds from a starting token or a factory bonus cost anything from the main board?
- With the Clocks 3A Factory, can two Ships go to the same Destination?
- Is Production free when a Bulbs 2B effect builds a Machine and then produces in that Factory?
- How many Goods does a Factory produce with 0, 1 or 2 Machines?
- For the Paper 3B effect, can you keep any coin value, or only up to 3,000 yen?
- Can you buy a Machine when you have no Factory?
- Can you have more than one Factory of the same type in your Zaibatsu?
- Can you move Goods from one Factory to another, even if they are the same type?
- Can Goods of the same type come from different Factories?
- Can Lenses 3B's train bonus apply before you have placed the first Train of that action?
- If you own Lenses 3A, can its region bonus fund a second Train during the same Trains action?
- Can you use an optional Finance-track rollback on a Factory if your marker is too close to the start to move back the full amount?
Local Markets and Influence Tokens
- How many influence tokens can sit around one Local Market in 2- and 3-player games?
- In a 2- or 3-player game, which influence token goes back when a new token overflows a Local Market?
- In a 2-player game, can a third influence token equal in value to an existing one be placed at a Local Market?
- Are influence tokens from an earlier era reclaimed if nobody replaces them?
- Do the preprinted numbers on Local Market spaces limit which token you can place?
- Which influence token values can you place for a Local Market delivery?
- If the matching influence token is gone, can you place a lower-value token instead?
- Can you combine goods or tokens to place a higher-value influence token, such as a 4 on Paper?
- When you deliver Paper goods to a Local Market, must the influence token go on a Paper space?
- If one Local Markets action delivers several Goods into one Region, do you get the Region bonus once or for each activation?
- Can you take the Local Markets action just for the Region bonus if you cannot place an influence token?
- Can the one to three activations of a Local Markets action be spread across different Regions?
- Can you split one Factory's Goods across several influence tokens?
- Can you combine same-type Goods from two Factories to pay for one influence token or for repeated actions?
- Can you combine different Goods types, such as two Cotton and one Paper, for one influence token?
Investment and Contracts
- How many Goods does each Investment and Contracts activation spend, and must they match?
- What does each activation of Investment and Contracts give you?
- How do the special contracts in Investment and Contracts activate?
- Do the two special contracts grant both a Victory Point bonus and another Department bonus?
Consolidation
- Can you convert Silk into money during Consolidation, or at the Final Consolidation, to pay salaries?
- After Consolidation, do you keep 1 money if you cannot pay your salaries?
- How many victory points do you lose when you cannot pay all your salaries at Consolidation?
- When all your Workers are one colour, do you still pay 3,000 yen in salaries?
- Do you get both Department bonuses when the topmost and bottommost Workers are the same colour?
- Which Workers spaces are grey, and which one is not?
- During Consolidation, which Favor tokens can you take?
End of the Round
Influence Scoring
- How many influence scoring values are used in a 3-player game?
- Which Region score values are used in a 2-player game?
- Do Overseas Companies' printed values still count when some Local Market spaces are never covered?
- When do Trains score, and how much influence do they add?
- Can a player with no Influence in a Region still score Victory Points there?
- How are tied places in a Region scored in a 3-player game?
- Is Influence Scoring done before or after the Round marker moves?
End of the Game
- How are leftover Goods and resources scored at the end of the game?
- Does taking the money income on Investment and Contracts count as a contract for final scoring?
- During the final three turns, are emptied Hiring spaces or the Worker Queue refilled?
- After the first Round marker reaches the second marker, do you still add Workers and refill the Queue before the three final turns?
- When the end of the game is triggered, do the three final turns start at once, and does the triggering player get the last turn?
- Do you still make the Final Consolidation with no Workers in your Workers area?
- At game end, do you score the rightmost Factory and the rightmost Contract separately?
Common Goals Module
- For the Common Goals region condition, does 'most Influence tokens' count tokens or their value, and do Trains count?
- Can you claim more than one Common Goals reward at the end of a Period?
- What do the numbers on the Common Goals tokens mean?
- When one Period ends, do you also score Common Goals from earlier Periods?
- How does the Common Goals third Period reward work?
Solo Mode
- Does the automa replace your influence token of equal value, or cover an empty space instead?
- In solo, when the automa's token shows a Workers icon and Hiring spaces tie, which one loses a Worker?
- In solo, when does a Workers-icon token trigger the automa's Trains or Local Markets step?
- When the automa resets its priority Workers, do you draw new Workers from the bag?
- What happens when the automa must return a Worker from a Hiring space that has none?
- In solo, when the automa's influence row runs out, which Goods type does it use?
- In solo, does the automa skip a Region in its influence check if you have only Trains there?