This is a list of board games invented, developed and/or published in Japan.
| Game name | Year | Publisher/Designer (Japan) | Players | Gameplay style | Similar Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Go (囲碁, igo?) | ? | Traditional | 2 | Strategic territory and surrounding game | weiqi in Chinese, baduk in Korean |
| Gomoku (五目並べ, gomokunarabe?) | ? | Traditional | 2 | Strategic abstract game played with Go pieces on a Renju board (15x15), goal to reach five in a row | Renju, Four in a row, Irensei |
| Irensei (囲連星?) | ? | Traditional | 2 | Strategic abstract game played with Go pieces on a Go board (19x19); unites elements of the game of Go with those of Gomoku | Go, Gomoku |
| Jinsei Game (人生ゲーム, jin-sei gēmu?) | 1967 | Takara | ? | Japanese adaption of The Game of Life | The Game of Life |
| Renju (連珠?) | ? | Traditional | 2 | Strategic five-in-a-row game with equal chances for both players | Pente, Gomoku |
| Shadow Hunters (シャドウハンターズ, shadō hantāzu?) | 2005 | Game Republic | 4-8 | Supernatural themed, strategic, secret team play | Bang!, Mafia |
| Riichi Mahjong (リーチ麻雀, Riichi Maajan?) | ? | Traditional | 4 | Chinese Mahjong with Japanese rules | Mahjong |
| Shogi and variants (将棋, shōgi?, generals' chess) Japanese chess | ? | Traditional | 2 | Played on a 9x9 board; can use captured pieces against opponent | Chess |
| Sugoroku (双六?) | ? | Traditional | ? | Race game, two variants | Backgammon (variant), Snakes and Ladders (variant) |
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, japanese, board and/or games:
“Thirty—the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“Shea—they call him Scholar Jack—
Went down the list of the dead.
Officers, seamen, gunners, marines,
The crews of the gig and yawl,
The bearded man and the lad in his teens,
Carpenters, coal-passers—all.”
—Joseph I. C. Clarke (1846–1925)
“The Japanese have perfected good manners and made them indistinguishable from rudeness.”
—Paul Theroux (b. 1941)
“And they heaved a mighty breath, every soul on board but me,
As they saw her nose again pointing handsome out to sea;
But all that I could think of, in the darkness and the cold,
Was just that I was leaving home and my folks were growing old.”
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)
“Criticism occupies the lowest place in the literary hierarchy: as regards form, almost always; and as regards moral value, incontestably. It comes after rhyming games and acrostics, which at least require a certain inventiveness.”
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880)