Japon Brand is a diverse collection of designers and self-publishers from Japan.

Their gaming portfolio is growing steadily. Their games look intriguing and many bring a unique Japanese perspective to game design. Several have been picked up and republished by international publishers and have received acclaim; recent examples include R-Eco, a game about garbage dumping and recycling, and Parade, a game featuring Alice and Wonderland characters who wander in and out of a marching parade.

Being a diverse group of unique designers, some of their designs strike out from the usual collection of dice, cards, and cardboard to more interesting themes and materials. For example, last year brought Hua La, a game with bendable construction links and abstract flowers:

And String Railway, a railway game where the routes, rivers, mountain, and boarders are all made from colored strings:

Among many others. The following hour-long video presents an introduction to several of their games as they demonstrated them to BGG at last year’s Essen.