Nippon: Zaibatsu · Board game rules
Can I choose to place lower influence than the card requires?
Quick answer
No — the Influence token's value is fixed by the number and level of Goods you spend; you can't freely choose a lower value.
Details
When you serve a Local Market, the "appropriate value" of the Influence token you place is determined directly by a table based on the level of the Goods spent and how many of them you spend (e.g., for 1-level Goods, spending 1/2/3 Goods requires a token worth 1/2/3 Influence, respectively) [p.14 — LOCAL MARKETS ACTION]. This means you cannot choose to spend the Goods amount required for a higher-value token and then place a lower-value token instead — the value is dictated by what you spend, not a free choice.
You also cannot place a token that doesn't match this required value on a chosen space, and you may not place Influence tokens that don't match the level of the Goods you spent [p.14 — LOCAL MARKETS ACTION].
Watch out: The flexibility in the Local Markets action is about which space you occupy (empty, or occupied if your new token is higher-valued) and how many activations/Goods you spend — not about picking an arbitrary token value lower than what the spent Goods dictate [p.14 — LOCAL MARKETS ACTION].