Yokohama Board Game

Build Your Trading Empire in Meiji-Era Japan

Every turn in Yokohama is a quiet negotiation between ambition and logistics. You know exactly what you want to accomplish — expand into a new district, fulfill a lucrative export contract, curry favour with a foreign merchant — but your assistants are scattered across the city, and moving them into position takes planning. That pressure, turn after turn, is what keeps the game humming right up until the final scoring.

About the Game

Published by OKAZU Brand and widely distributed through Rio Grande Games, Yokohama places players in the role of merchant traders operating in the bustling port city of Yokohama during the Meiji period — a time when Japan was opening its doors to international trade and the city was transforming rapidly. Players build up their commercial presence across a modular city board by deploying and repositioning assistants, constructing buildings, and fulfilling orders that arrive from foreign trading partners. The map changes with each game, the trading demands shift, and no two sessions play out quite the same way.

The core mechanism is refreshingly tactile: you move your president piece through city districts, collecting assistants as you go, and the number of assistants gathered in a district determines what actions you can take there. It sounds simple. In practice, it creates a beautifully tense push-and-pull between efficiency and opportunity that rewards players who think a few steps ahead.

Who Should Play It

Yokohama is a strong fit for groups who enjoy strategic games with meaningful decisions but don't want to spend half the night learning rules. It plays two to four players and hits a comfortable sweet spot at three or four, where the competition for district space and trade orders really comes alive. The rulebook is approachable, but there's enough strategic depth here to keep experienced gamers coming back. Expect sessions of around ninety minutes once everyone has a game or two under their belt — this is a medium-weight title that rewards repeat play.

What's in the Box

Yokohama arrives with a modular board that reshapes the city layout across plays, a satisfying collection of wooden pieces and player components, and beautifully illustrated district and goods tiles that do justice to the Meiji-era setting. The artwork carries a clean, period-appropriate aesthetic throughout, and the component quality makes the market-and-trade theme feel grounded rather than abstract. The city feels like a real place you're navigating — not just a grid of action spaces.

Specifications