This is a list of traditional Japanese games. Some of them are localized.

Games

Children's games

Beigoma The ''beigoma'' (Japanese language, Japanese: ベーゴマ) is a traditional Japanese culture, Japanese top that is approximately 3 cm in diameter and often decorated with kanji. When spun correctly, the ''beigoma'' makes a humming sound. ...

* Bīdama * Daruma-san *

Hide-and-seek Hide-and-seek (sometimes known as hide-and-go-seek) is a popular children's game in which at least two players (usually at least three) conceal themselves in a set environment, to be found by one or more seekers. The game is played by one chose ...

Kemari is an athletic game that was popular in Japan during the Heian (794–1185) and Kamakura period (1185–1333). It resembles a game of football or hacky sack. The game was popular in Kyoto, the capital, and the surrounding Kinki (Kansai r ...

Kendama The is a traditional Japanese skill toy. It consists of a handle (''ken''), a pair of cups (''sarado''), and a ball (''tama'') that are all connected together by a string. On one end of the ''ken'' is a cup, while the other end of ''ken'' is na ...

* Ken-ken-pa (

Hopscotch Hopscotch is a popular playground game in which players toss a small object, called a lagger, into numbered triangles or a pattern of rectangles outlined on the ground and then hop or jump through the spaces and retrieve the object. It is a ch ...

) * Menko * Nawatobi (

Jump rope A skipping rope (British English) or jump rope (American English) is a tool used in the sport of skipping/jump rope where one or more participants jump over a rope swung so that it passes under their feet and over their heads. There are multi ...

) *

Ohajiki is a traditional Japanese children's game similar to marbles. It is played with small coin-shaped pieces also called ''ohajiki''. The pieces are typically made of glass or plastic, although historically the game was often played with pebbles o ...

Onigokko Tag (also called touch and go AG'', tig, it, tiggy, tips, tick, tip) is a playground game involving two or more players chasing other players in an attempt to "tag" and mark them out of play, usually by touching with a hand. There are many vari ...

* Oshikura Manju *

Otedama is a traditional Japanese children's game. Small bean bags are tossed and juggled in a game similar to jacks. Although it is generally a social game, Otedama can also be played alone. It is rarely competitive and often accompanied by singing. Ot ...

Board games

* Go - originates in China, important rules change (free opening) in Japan *

Renju ''Renju'' (Japanese: 連珠) is a professional variant of gomoku. It was named renju by Japanese journalist Ruikou Kuroiwa (黒岩涙香) on December 6, 1899 in a Japanese newspaper ''Yorozu chouhou'' (萬朝報). The name "renju" comes from th ...

Shogi , also known as Japanese chess, is a strategy board game for two players. It is one of the most popular board games in Japan and is in the same family of games as Western chess, ''chaturanga, Xiangqi'', Indian chess, and '' janggi''. ''Shōgi'' ...

* Sugoroku *

Ninuki-renju Pente is an abstract strategy board game for two or more players, created in 1977 by Gary Gabrel. A member of the m,n,k game family, Pente stands out for its custodial capture mechanic, which allows players to "sandwich" pairs of stones and cap ...

Card games

Buta no shippo is a Japanese card game. It literally means ''pig's tail'' in English language, English. The game is usually played with three or more players. It can be considered a party game. This game makes an appearance in ''Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide C ...

Daifugō or , also known as Tycoon, is a Japanese shedding-type card game for three or more players played with a standard 52-card pack. The objective of the game is to get rid of all the cards one has as fast as possible by playing progressively stro ...

(another name: Daihinmin) *

Hanafuda are a style of Japanese playing cards. They are typically smaller than Western playing cards, only , but thicker and stiffer. On the face of each card is a depiction of plants, ''tanzaku'' (短冊), animals, birds, or man-made objects. One single ...

Karuta are Japanese playing cards. Playing cards were introduced to Japan by Portuguese traders during the mid-16th century. These early decks were used for trick-taking games. The earliest indigenous ''karuta'' was invented in the town of Miike in C ...

Oicho-Kabu is a traditional Japanese card game that is similar to Baccarat. It is typically played with special ''kabufuda'' cards. A ''hanafuda'' deck can also be used, if the last two months are discarded, and Western playing cards can be used if the ...

Two-ten-jack Two-ten-jack is a Japanese trick-taking card game for two players that takes its name from the three highest-scoring (and lowest-scoring) cards in the game: the 2, 10 and Jack in three different suits. Play Preliminaries The object of two-ten-j ...

(Tsū-ten-jakku) - a

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese

trick-taking A trick-taking game is a card or tile-based game in which play of a ''hand'' centers on a series of finite rounds or units of play, called ''tricks'', which are each evaluated to determine a winner or ''taker'' of that trick. The object of such g ...

card game. *

Uta-garuta is a type of a deck of ''karuta'', Japanese traditional playing cards. A set of ''uta-garuta'' contains 100 cards, with a ''waka (poetry), waka'' poem written on each. ''Uta-garuta'' is also the name of the game in which the deck is used. The st ...

- a kind of karuta (another name:

Hyakunin Isshu is a classical Japanese anthology of one hundred Japanese ''waka'' by one hundred poets. ''Hyakunin isshu'' can be translated to "one hundred people, one poem ach; it can also refer to the card game of ''uta-garuta'', which uses a deck compos ...

)

Tile games

* Japanese Mahjong - Japanese mahjong, also called rīchi mahjong *

Sudoku Sudoku (; ja, 数独, sūdoku, digit-single; originally called Number Place) is a logic-based, combinatorial number-placement puzzle. In classic Sudoku, the objective is to fill a 9 × 9 grid with digits so that each column, each row ...

Dice games

* Cho-han bakuchi - a gambling game *

Kitsune bakuchi ''Kitsune Bakuchi'' is a dice game from Japan in which a player tries to roll three dice with the same number on them. If the player succeeds, he or she wins four times the amount wagered. The term literally means "fox gambling." There are si ...

Word games

Dajare is a kind of comic Japanese word play, similar in spirit to a pun that relies on similarities in the pronunciation of words to create a simple joke. ''Dajare'' are popular in advertising. ''Dajare'' are also associated with {{nihongo, ''oyaji'' ...

Henohenomoheji ''Henohenomoheji'' ( ja, へのへのもへじ ) or ''hehenonomoheji'' () is a face known to be drawn by Japanese schoolchildren using hiragana characters. It became a popular drawing during the Edo period. The word breaks down into seven hir ...

* Kaibun *

Shiritori Shiritori (; ) is a Japanese word game in which the players are required to say a word which begins with the final ''kana'' of the previous word. No distinction is made between ''hiragana'', ''katakana'', and ''kanji''. "Shiritori" literally means ...