1. Setup the game board by placing the game board in the center of the table. Each player chooses a color and takes all the player pieces, screens, and battle tokens of that color.

2. Shuffle the deck of skill cards and place it face down on the designated area.

3. Each player places their scoring marker on the starting space of the scoring track on the game board.

4. The starting player is the last person who visited Japan. The starting player receives the starting player token.