No boxes were physically harmed in the making of this comparison.

You’ll find that all pictures on this site are pictures of actual boxes in our collection. We believe we have every version of the First Edition base game of Carcassonne in the Japanese language. If you are not sure which box you have, have a look below or contact us and we’ll be able to tell you!

Möbius Games, first printing

2005

This box was perhaps the start of our Carcassonne Museum journey. We love the look of Carcassonne games with the title of the game in other languages/alphabets, and it doesn’t get much better than seeing it in Katakana! Although these can be hard to find, we picked up the Japanese first printing quite a while ago.

The box is a straightforward adaptation of the printings in German at the time, rocking that Spiel des Jahres logo!

Möbius Games, second printing

2013

The main change of the second printing in Japanese can be found on the front of the box. Following the bigger update seen in other languages, the front of the box got more detailed front box art, with more detailed facial expressions on the knight and maiden. Don’t forget the Hans im Glück rider in the field!

On the back of the box, rather than having the updated blue layout, this box kept the old design but added the row of meeples across the top.