r/victoria3 • u/a_saddler • 9h ago
Screenshot A guide on how to restore Imperial Japan by 1840-45 with a Modernizer in charge of the Landowners
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So, if you're like me, having set the game aside for quite a while only to come back with the Great Wave DLC having reworked Japan quite a bit, you're probably very confused about how all the new flavor works. I've played a few runs myself and I think I've finally figured out how to do the honorable restoration early optimally, and I think it actually makes Japan stronger than in previous patches.
It relies on two pieces of RNG at the start.
- The first is fairly easy, when you start a game, there's a chance that on day 0, the Chonin, which are the Japanese Petite Bourgeoise, aren't marginalized, therefore you can put them in government right from the start. I think about a third of the new games start out with them available. If you move a day forward though, they immediately fall back to marginalized. So I'd restart if they're marginalized from the start. But if you don't want to restart, just switch the Government Admin PM to Secular, build 2-3 more Admin buildings, and they should appear again.
- Now, the 2nd piece of RNG, which I find incredibly annoying, is that you need Qing to ban the opium. That way, the UK will almost certainly declare on them (and win easily), which will trigger an event on your side where you can end Sakoku (Isolationism) early. But right now, most of the time they don't because the Qing AI doesn't ban opium. It picks the 'we have to do something' option but then just leaves the journal untouched. I don't know how to fix this behavior without switching to Qing and banning it yourself, but I hope that anyone can tell me how to make a simple mod so that Qing chooses that option so I don't have to rely on a simple piece of RNG that doesn't work how it's supposed to.
Otherwise, you have to rely on GB to open you up, or an event to fire where smugglers try to trade in Japan and you can use that opportunity to end Sakoku. But these are even less predictable. The Opium War is much more reliable, if only it worked properly. I really hope the new AI patch addresses that. You can of course try to repeal the law yourself too, but it's a pain to try to do that.
Otherwise, the steps to restoring Japan are fairly straightforward with little RNG involved. And I'm just going to focus on the political side, the economics are up to you:
- Day 0, before unpausing, add the Chonin and Jisha (Religious IG) alongside the Landowners to your government and start Appointed Bureaucrats. Then immediately remove the Chonin so you get a fully legitimate government. Then negotiate with the Jisha, who will 9 times out of 10 have the 'improve lives' option available because Japan starts with terrible SoL due to the current crisis in the country. You will fulfill that requirement really easily. This way you will have some 10-15% chance to pass, and some push back from the Landowners which we will fix with the next step.
- Patronize the Landowner leader, then go to your national caste and find two more who you can patronize, preferably at least one non-Tokugawa member that will give you +1 approval. It'll cost you 300 authority total. Along with the Frugal Ordinance, they will have so much approval that they won't stand against you for the first law.
- Now go to your buildings PMs, and switch Rice PM's to fish fertilizers and single crop. This will immediately update without unpausing, and along with having kicked out the Chonin out of government will give you two options on the Tenpo Crisis, which are Combat Rice Hoarding and Frugal Ordinance. Pick both, especially Frugal Ordinance which will give you a -2 minimum SoL as an amendment to your Loose Status Order law in the Edo System Law. This is very helpful and you won't want to switch off Loose until the Tenpo Crisis almost runs out.
- Whatever you do with your authority and taxes, I would recommend you keep authority close to excess and your government over 90 legitimate so you get those law tics as quickly as possible. In my experience, despite starting with low chance, you get Appointed Bureaucrats passed in around a year easily. Appointed Bureaucrats is good because Japan, like Qing, has lots of pops in few states, which means the +25% tax bonus is very useful, and it counts under the Tenpo requirements. And because you're going to have to build Admin Buildings after it passes, it'll make the Chonin unmarginalized again. You'll need them.
- Once you're done with Appointed Bureaucrats, you go straight for Tenant Farmers. Put the Farmers in government, and negotiate with the Jisha again for SoL improvements, which should be easy once more because you shouldn't be past the starting SoL crisis. You should be able to pass it easily too by 1839. Don't try to go for Homesteading, it's too hard and not even worth it because you'll want the Landowners to still be powerful when you put a modernizers in charge of them.
- This is where usually, if Qing banned Opium, the war happens and Britain wins. Sometime they take the land route over Tibet and it takes quite a while. So if they haven't won just yet, put the Military in government (kick out the farmers) and start the Shinsegumi Law, which you can later merge into the Secret Police law, and wait for the Opium war to be over.
- Once the war is over, you get an event, Lion in the Dragn's Den, which will give you the option to choose to have a Journal entry where you can end Sakoku. Pick that, and before you end Sakoku, put the Chonin in government again so you have the Free Trade option available. Pick that and kick the Chonin once again out, but do keep a government with less than 50 legitimacy (unless you want to go for the Taikunate, but this is not a guide for that).
- The Honorable Restoration should fire in a few days, with all sorts of stuff happening all at once. But the main thing to focus on are the Journal Entries, where you can pick 'decide on a reform strategy', pick Bakufu.
- Now, in order to Petition for Imperial restoration, you need the Sono Joi movement to be agitated above 50%. It should happen naturally, but if it's not, just start a law they like and immediately cancel it, such as Oligarchy. It'll easily get them over 50%, but don't overdo it with any other law because you need them not to start a revolution, since you need 6 months of quiet and peace so that the Emperor can be properly restored. It's a delicate balance to strike, but not too hard. Here's where the Free Trade option comes handy though, because if the Sono Joi look like they're about to start a revolution, you just go for Mercantilism, which will make them and the landowners happy.
- After six months, you should have the Ninko Restoration, and soon after you should get an event that kicks out the Tokugawa leader from the Landowners. Here's where that young non-Tokugawa member becomes leader of the Landowners, which in my game is a moderate named Date Narikuni.
- After the restoration, you should have an option to dispatch a mission to the west. Click on it immediately, and send the Landowner leader in the mission. In the few tests that I did, if you have him spend the maximum on all places he visits, he will likely pick up too many options and when he returns, and you will have a select chance of him becoming either a Modernizer, a Protectionist or a Market Liberal. You really want Modernizer, and in order to get that reliably, don't spend too much time on Mexico or Europe, but spend the most time in the UK. This way you're almost guaranteed to get him to become a Modernizer. You want that because Modernizer means Interventionism, Protectionism, Public Schools, Lax Status Order, Per Capita Taxation etc. All from the leader of the landowners that should be quite powerful still. And on top of that, there's a chance he picks up Interventionism from the UK and you can immediately change from Traditionalism to it if you don't care about Production tech boost.
This way, by 1840 to 1845 you should have a restored Imperial Japan with a Modernizer in charge of your Landowners and a +2 monthly tick towards recognition too. And the Tenpo Crisis should be easily resolvable whichever way you choose. It's up to you what you do with your game going forward.
If you have insights in how to optimize this further, please do share them.
