Civilization 7 offers players 30 different Civilizations to choose from, split across three different ages. Unlike previous games in the series, each civilization is locked to a certain age and players will need to choose a new civilization when advancing from one age to the next. This makes it all the more important to plan ahead, as each civilization is better at some strategies than others.
This guide will focus on Meiji Japan, a Modern Age Civilization in Civilization 7 that specializes in Militaristic and Scientific strategies. This Civilization gains a huge boost to science when overbuilding, making it especially good in the early stages of the Modern Age while you’re upgrading and modernizing your cities.
Related
Civilization 7: All Victories (& How To Get Them)
There are four normal Victory Conditions Civ 7 players can earn, in addition to the Score Victory which triggers at the end of the Modern Age.
Meiji Japan Civ Overview
Meiji Japan is a Modern Age Civilization that specializes in Militaristic and Scientific strategies. Based on Japan during and following the Meiji Restoration, this civilization benefits from Overbuilding and using their unique ability to rapidly research new technologies.
Meiji Japan Abilities, Units, Buildings, Civics, & More
Meiji Japan’s Unique Ability provides 25% of the production cost as science whenever you overbuild something, encouraging you to modernize your civilization and quickly research new technologies as a result, which quickly snowballs into more overbuilding and allows your civilization to quickly improve and expand.
While their ability provides benefits to science, their unique units enhance their military ability. Mikasa’s ability to respawn once when destroyed allows their navy to bounce back from unexpected losses, while Zero helps them achieve air superiority over other Civs with its improved range and combat strength against other aircraft.
Finally, their unique infrastructure provides them with two very useful buildings: Ginkō and Jukogyo. The former of these helps to generate more gold, gaining adjacency bonuses from other gold buildings, while the latter increases production and resource slots, with adjacency bonuses from coast tiles. When built on the same tile, these become the unique quarter “Zaibatsu”, which gives increased gold and production to adjacent buildings.
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Name |
Description |
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|---|---|---|
|
Civ Ability |
Goisshin |
When you Overbuild a Building, receive Science equal to a set percentage of the new Building’s Production cost. |
|
Unique Naval Unit |
Mikasa |
The first time this Unit is destroyed, it uses a charge to respawn at the nearest friendly Naval spawn point at reduced health. |
|
Unique Aircraft Unit |
Zero |
|
|
Unique Infrastructure |
Jukogyo |
|
|
Ginkō |
|
|
|
Zaibatsu (Unique Quarter) |
|
Meiji Japan Civ Civics Tree
Here’s all of the Civics exclusive to Meiji Japan in Civilization 7:
|
Civic |
Unlocks |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Bunmei Kaika |
Jukogyo (Building) |
|
|
+50% Production towards constructing Military and Production buildings. |
Dogo Onsen (Wonder) |
|
|
Fukoku kyōhei (Tradition) |
When you train a naval or aircraft unit, receive science equal to 25% of its production cost. |
|
|
Oath in Five Articles |
Ginkō (Building) |
|
|
+50% Production towards constructing Science buildings. |
O-yatoi Gaikokujin (Tradition) |
|
|
Supreme War Council |
Shusei Kokubō (Tradition) |
Military Buildings receive a Production adjacency bonus from Coast tiles. |
|
+25 Production towards training Naval and Aircraft Units. |
||
|
Kantai Kessen |
Kōkūtai (Tradition) |
+6 Combat Strength for Aircraft units attacking an enemy unit engaged by a Naval unit. |
|
+3 Combat Strength for units on or adjacent to the coast. |
How To Unlock Meiji Japan Civ
All Meiji Japan Civ Unlock Requirements
Any leader can unlock Meiji Japan if they improve three Tea Resources during the playthrough, before the Modern Age. Alternatively, players who choose Himiko as their Leader or Khmer as their Civ during the Age of Antiquity will automatically have access to Meiji Japan upon reaching the Modern Age.
Best Meiji Japan Victory Condition: Science
Meiji Japan excels at rapidly progressing through the technology tree thanks to their Goisshin ability and their powerful unique Civics. Their unique quarter allows them to boost their production, which makes the completion of objectives like the Trans-Oceanic Flight and Breaking the Sound Barrier much faster.
Meiji Japan also provides some excellent naval and aircraft unit boosts, making them quite competent at warfare. Ideally, you’ll want to leverage these military bonuses to keep your cities safe while you progress toward a scientific victory.
Civ 7 Meiji Japan General Strategy
When playing as Meiji Japan, you’ll usually want to prioritize science and production, then gold, to speed up your progress toward a scientific victory. Overbuilding will generate a huge amount of extra science, allowing you to upgrade your cities while expediting your progress toward crucial technologies (flight being the first you should aim for.) Using the Jukogyo and Ginkō (and, by extension, the Zaibatsu) you can gain a sizable bonus to your Production and Gold that will help you quickly complete projects and produce/maintain military units to defend your cities. With the scientific advantage, you’ll have access to stronger military units more quickly too.
Meiji Japan Starting Tips
When deciding where to put your cities in a game where you’re aiming to end as Meiji Japan, it’s important to position them near the coast. This will allow you to take advantage of the Jukogyo’s coastal Production adjacency bonus, which will make it easier and faster to construct new buildings and complete projects in those cities.
During this age, you’ll want to begin by researching academics to gain access to newer and better science buildings. If you’re fast enough to get it, you should build Oxford University (Wonder) to get two free technologies and further cement your technological advantage. Key technologies to research for improved production are Industrialization and Mass Production, allowing you to build Train Stations and Factories. Your big Science milestones are Flight, Aerodynamics, and Rocketry, which contain the three projects you’ll need to complete to gain access to the Manned Space Flight project.
Having good relations with other civilizations can be quite effective at discouraging attacks on your cities, and having high happiness will get you more policy slots by triggering celebrations more often. With powerful traditions like Fukoku kyōhei and O-yatoi Gaikokujin, you’ll want the extra policy slots as quickly as possible.
All in all, your main goal will be achieving high science and production so that you can complete the three Legacy Path projects and then the Manned Space Flight as quickly as possible.
Best Leaders For Meiji Japan:
Three Leaders who work well with the strategy discussed above are Himiko (Queen of Wa), Confucius, and Trung Trac. Himiko’s Friend of Wei endeavor and science boosts from friendly or helpful relationships with other Civilizations makes her perfect for establishing strong alliances while building a huge scientific advantage over the other civs.
Confucius boosts the growth rate of cities by 25% and provides +2 science from specialists, which can help you get more mileage out of your districts. Finally, Trung Trac gains +10% science in tropical cities, which is doubled when in a formal war that she declared, which pairs well with Japan’s strong naval and aircraft units if you’re comfortable spending a lot of time at war while attempting a science victory (or if you want to try for a military victory instead.)
- Released
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February 11, 2025