Friday, 23 January 2026

Blog Note: Big in Japan

 




Last year I researched and wrote up my first research feature for A Fast Game called The Value Proposition of Wargaming Awards - the Publishers' Perspective (I also wrote a TL/DR summary for the time-poor and attention-deficient). I contacted dozens of publishers in North America, Europe, and Asia, asking them about their experiences receiving nominations for or winning wargame awards. Nearly half of the companies I contacted replied – something I’m still humbled by – and one of the publishers that replied was veteran designer Yasushi Nakaguro (arguably best known in the West for his game, Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: War in Asia and thePacific (BonSai Games, 2017), which appeared in Issue 9 of MMP’s Special Ops magazine) who runs BonSai Games in Japan. Mr Nakaguro was in the unique situation of having three games of his design nominated, released by two different avenues, BonSai and French publisher, Nuts! Publishing (I’ve written about one of these titles, 300: Earth and Water (BonSai Games, 2018; Nuts! Publishing, 2020) here).

BonSai is a small operation with a comparatively large output; along with a fairly busy release schedule of wargames both locally designed games and English-language titles translated to Japanese, BonSai also produces a quarterly wargaming magazine, Banzai, which includes a game in every issue (like the rest of the magazine, the rules are presented in kanji, although translations are sometimes posted to a given game’s BGG page).

I’m delighted to report that the Value Proposition of Wargaming Awards article is going to feature – translated into Japanese, of course – in the next issue of Banzai, no. 28 which, according to BonSai’s most recent newsletter post, will be available at their online store from February 20. If you’d like a copy (and why wouldn’t you?), best get in quickly as the previous three issues at least have completely sold out pretty soon after release.

 

 


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Blog Note: Big in Japan

  Last year I researched and wrote up my first research feature for A Fast Game called The Value Proposition of Wargaming Awards - the Publi...