Japan has earned itself a reputation for creating some of the most innovative, adventuresome, and fun games in the world. Their unique lens of the world, combined with the beautiful artistic styles prevalent in the culture, and the intelligence and creativity of the designers themselves has resulted not only in some of the most beautiful games available but also some of the most intriguing, strategically unique, and wonderfully designed games ever. Notably, Go, often referred to as the world’s oldest board game, highlights the historical significance of Japanese games with its origins in China over 2,500 years ago and its impact on artificial intelligence development. These qualities mean that Japanese games are well worth exploring, even if you’re not a Japanophile or even that familiar with the culture. Explore the beauty and enjoy the gameplay styles, nature themes, and intentional strategies as you play any of the following popular Japanese board games.
Modern Japanese Board Game Design
Modern Japanese board game design has evolved significantly over the years, incorporating innovative mechanics and themes that cater to a wide range of players. Japanese game designers have been experimenting with new ideas, blending traditional elements with modern twists, resulting in a unique gaming experience. This evolution has led to the creation of games that are not only fun and engaging but also intellectually stimulating and aesthetically pleasing.
Innovative Mechanics and Themes
One of the notable trends in modern Japanese board game design is the incorporation of cooperative gameplay. Games like Deep Sea Adventure and Tokyo Highway have introduced players to new ways of working together to achieve a common goal. These games often feature innovative mechanics, such as shared resources, modular boards, and variable player powers, which add a fresh layer of complexity to the gameplay.
Another trend is the use of abstract themes, such as in games like Gomoku and Renju, which focus on strategic placement and pattern-building. These games often require players to think critically and make tactical decisions, making them appealing to fans of traditional Japanese games. The blend of abstract themes with modern mechanics creates a unique gaming experience that is both challenging and rewarding.
Deep Sea Adventure: A Cooperative Japanese Game
Deep Sea Adventure is a prime example of modern Japanese board game design. This cooperative game, designed by Jun Sasaki and Goro Sasaki, takes players on an underwater adventure, where they must work together to collect treasure and escape the ocean floor. The game features a unique mechanism where players share a common oxygen tank and submarine, requiring them to manage their resources carefully and make strategic decisions to succeed.
In Deep Sea Adventure, players roll dice to move their divers deeper into the ocean, collecting treasure along the way. However, the more treasure they collect, the faster their shared oxygen supply depletes. This creates a tense and exciting dynamic where players must balance their greed with the need to return to the submarine before running out of air. The game’s modular board and variable player powers add to its replayability, making each game session a new and thrilling experience.
In conclusion, modern Japanese board game design is a vibrant and exciting field, with designers pushing the boundaries of innovation and creativity. With games like Deep Sea Adventure and Tokyo Highway, players can experience the unique blend of traditional and modern elements that make Japanese games so appealing. Whether you’re a fan of cooperative gameplay, abstract themes, or strategic placement, there’s a modern Japanese board game out there for you to enjoy.
Best Japanese Board Games
Crash Octopus
Age: 7+ (Community 6+) Players: 1-5 (Community Best at 4) Time: 20-30 minutes
As would befit a game from an island nation, Crash Octopus puts you and your friends into the shoes of sailors who have just been attacked by a giant octopus and need to rescue both captain and cargo from the water. The goal of each player is to collect at least one of each of the five types of cargo.
A unique feature of this game is that the table you play on acts as the board. Included in the game is a string you set up that acts as the perimeter of the game, with the octopus set up in the middle and all of the ships placed outside the octopus’s tentacles. Then, as a unique play mechanic, each player takes turns dropping cargo onto the octopus’s head letting it bounce onto the table where it stays until recovered by a player.
When it’s time for you to take a turn, you can either choose to move your ship or cargo. After choosing which action you’ll take, you can flick the object to get the cargo onto your ship. If you aren’t able to land the cargo on your ship, you end the turn. If you are able to, you get to load the cargo up and move closer to victory. The downside of advancing is every new type of treasure makes the octopus attack, and this involves each player dropping a die on the octopus’s head and possibly moving ships and treasure. This dice-rolling mechanic is a key part of the game, emphasizing the interactive nature of how players roll to influence the game’s outcome.
Penguin Party
Age: 6+ Players: 2-6 Time: 15 minutes
Who doesn’t love penguins? Penguin Party is an adorable game about penguins who are celebrating the spring by forming themselves into pyramids for fishing purposes. As a player, your job is to help the penguins form into pyramids for a successful venture. The game’s deck of playing cards has penguins in five different colors. These should be spread out evenly among all of the players with the final card being used as the base of the pyramid.
While you take as many turns as there are players in this game, the average game only runs about fifteen minutes long. As the game goes on, players can move and adjust penguins, trying to keep themselves in the game or block players they know may have a certain color they want to play. The end result is a game with a lot of competitiveness that plays fast enough to make you want to immediately play a second game.
Machi Koro
Age: 8+ Players: 2-4 Time: 30 minutes
If you and your friends enjoy city-building games then you’ll want to look at Machi Koro, a well-known, well-beloved, award-winning Japanese game. This half-hour-long game places you in the role of the recently elected mayor of Machi Koro. Through playing the game you’ll get a chance to build the city to your liking, collect resources, and see the city grow. Each player is looking to complete four landmarks in their cities before any of the other players can reach this goal. While everyone shares the same goals, the way you go about those goals is left up to each player.
By design, the game’s challenging gameplay makes it easy to lose an evening playing multiple rounds. As players progress, their actions and decisions impact their strategy in the next round. This game edition has 3D molded custom coins in various sizes and colors, along with 20mm dice and a custom tray for holding the game pieces. If you’re looking for a game to enjoy with both friends and family, then this game will be perfect. The game takes only 30 minutes to play so it will keep everyone’s attention, even younger kids with short attention spans who often don’t make it through city-building games otherwise.
Potion Market
Age: 14+ Players: 2-4 Time: 20-60 minutes
Potion Market is a game about, well, potions. You and your fellow players are in a village where once a year an influx of magic allows them to create magical potions. Not only will you mix these mysterious potions, but you’ll also sell them to people who come to the village for the annual Potion Market, a unique event in the world.
Similar to the card game rummy, Potion Market involves drawing and discarding cards to create sets, emphasizing the formation of winning hands.
According to real-world players, one of the best things about this game is the unique flavor text of the gameplay. The average playtime for Potion Market runs between 20 and 60 minutes, varying wildly by your particular group of players’ methods and the luck of the draw. Setup and breakdown are easy, too, as you’ve only got two decks of cards to shuffle and pass. The rules are simple enough for both your friends and any kids in your family to learn quickly and easily to get the game off the ground within minutes.
Tokaido: A Journey Through Japanese Culture
Age: 8+ Players: 2-5 Time: 45 minutes
The legendary road that links the cities of Edo and Kyoto has earned itself a game: Tokaido. In this gorgeously crafted game, you and your friends take on the roles of travelers who are crossing the East Sea Road on an adventure. You’re looking for a variety of experiences. By the end, whichever one of you collects the most interesting and varied experiences wins. As you progress along the game board, you’ll have opportunities at every stop to collect something that could be an item, money, or something else relevant to your adventure of the turn.
At its heart, Tokaido is a collection game that features a variety of gems like delicious food, new friends, incredible panoramas, unique temples, and much more. The money you find will be used to purchase souvenirs for your trip, which will add to your total collection at the end of the game.
The game also introduces new rules that add variations and complexities, making each playthrough unique and engaging.
One game mechanic that helps set Tokaido apart is that on every turn whoever is furthest behind gets to go first. An additional strategy is added, which is that players can skip stops on the road so they can try and rush ahead to end the game quicker. With all the beautifully crafted experiences, every time you play Tokaido, the game feels fresh, new, and exciting once again.
Aqua Garden
Age: 15+ (Community 8+) Players: 1-4 Time: 40-60 minutes
The beautiful Japanese game Aqua Garden centers around you being the owner of an aquarium and the need to get stock for six tanks. However, you’re limited by both funds and only one employee who’s able to place fish in the tank. You must compete against your fellow players to create the best and most outstanding aquarium in town.
Depending on how many friends you have playing the game with you, each game may last between three and four rounds. Each of you has your own aquarium board, with a shared board that has all of the sea creatures you’re all competing to claim. But beware as you build your aquarium in this beautifully illustrated game: There’s only so much oxygen available in each of your tanks and you can’t add more creatures that the levels you have can safely support. Managing your aquarium involves drawing and discarding tiles to optimize the placement of sea creatures and maintain the right oxygen levels. Interestingly, the game creators have crafted a solo play mechanic as well, so if you love the art and concept, you can play on your own or with up to three others at a time.
3 Second Try
Age: 8+ Players: 2-7 Time: 15 minutes
A unique board game built around physical and mental challenges, 3 Second Try gives players three-seconds to perform tasks each round. This unique Japanese game involves the first player picking a card from either the physical or intellect card piles and releasing a ball that reaches the bottom in three seconds. During this initial phase, each player says how many times they think they can perform the task. On that player’s turn, they then attempt to do the task as many times as the exact number of times they picked, within the time limit of another three seconds. The player who picked the highest number of times goes first. Then it works its way down until everyone who picked several tries has had their turn. The game continues from here until a single player wins two cards and ends the game.
The game ends when a single player wins two cards, ensuring a quick and exciting conclusion.
This Japanese game only takes about 15 minutes total with a simple and fast setup and tear down, taking less than a minute or two each. The game includes a wide variety of challenges, so you can easily play several games in a single evening and not come across the same ones twice.
Tsuro: A Tile Based Game
Age: 8+ Players: 2-8 Time: 15-20 minutes
Tsuro is an award-winning game that’s great for any of your friends or family who are new to games. By its simple yet ingenious design, the game plays differently every time. The gameplay is about traveling a path forward, with you placing a tile for your token to move forward onto during each turn. The ultimate goal is to keep moving forward on the board longer than your friends can. However, this goal becomes more challenging as everyone takes more turns because the board fills up quickly.
On a deeper level, the game is intended to convey a spiritual theme rooted in Asian thought. At the end of the game, the collection of lines the players made are all intended to remind you that there are a variety of paths that can lead to divine wisdom. Playing the game invokes the classic quest of people seeking enlightenment, but entertains, intrigues, and encourages light competition to get there.
Bonsai
Age: 10+ (Community 8+) Players: 1-4 (Community Best at 3) Time: 40 minutes
The Japanese team, Bonsai means “planted in a container” or “tray planting.” These plants are created as living works of art as miniature versions of larger plants. In every respect, Bonsai are identical to their full-size counterparts. In real life, people can grow just about any tree species (and many shrubs or other plants) as bonsai – miniature versions of the full-size plant grown over many, many years.
These ideas are integral to the game Bonsai because you and your friends all take on the role of expert bonsai masters intent on growing the perfect plants. The player who grows the best plant will be appointed to show off their bonsai in the Imperial Palace’s garden. The game itself is a tile-laying game where on each of your turns you make choices that impact your ability to cultivate the perfect bonsai plant. As you progress, you may encounter mechanics that introduce a new character, transforming your bonsai into a more advanced version with unique abilities.
Senjutsu, a Battle for Japan
Age: 14+ (Community 12+) Players: 1-4 Time: 15-20 minutes
Centered on samurai battles, Senjutsu, a Battle for Japan plays out with miniatures and deck construction. With each samurai having unique abilities and variations of cards, there are thousands of combinations that result in no two games ever playing out the same. The cards you use to construct your deck are made up of various block maneuvers, quick attacks, and devastating special moves.
During each turn, you and your friends will prepare your samurai for fighting, draw ability cards, and then when you’re all ready, you reveal your cards at the same time. At this point, all of you resolve the actions listed on the cards, including capturing and using opponent’s pieces to your advantage. With quick gameplay, it’s normal for games to last only 20-30 minutes.
It should be noted that due to both the violent content and some complicated rules, this game is best enjoyed by teens and older.
Conclusion
While Japan seems to be mostly known for video games and anime in the West, this list of Japanese board and card games demonstrates why they should be and will eventually be known for making unique, engaging, and fun games of all types, worthy of players anywhere in the world.
Also Read: The Best Aesthetic Board Games – Looks Are Everything
FAQ: Japanese Board Games
What makes Japanese board games unique?
Japanese board games are known for their innovative gameplay, beautiful artistic styles, nature themes, and intentional strategies. They often incorporate unique cultural elements and offer fresh perspectives on game design.
Are Japanese board games suitable for non-Japanese speakers?
Yes, many Japanese board games are designed to be enjoyed by players regardless of their familiarity with Japanese culture or language. The games often focus on universal themes and intuitive gameplay mechanics.
What age ranges do these Japanese games cater to?
The games mentioned in the article cater to a wide range of ages, from as young as 6 years old (e.g., Penguin Party) to adult players. Many games are suitable for family play, while others are more complex and better suited for older teens and adults.
How long do typical Japanese board games take to play?
The games mentioned in the article have varying play times, ranging from quick 15-20 minute games (like Tsuro) to longer sessions of up to 60 minutes (like Potion Market). Many fall in the 30-45 minute range, making them suitable for casual game nights.
Do these Japanese games offer solo play options?
While most of the games are designed for multiple players, some, like Aqua Garden, offer solo play mechanics. This allows players to enjoy the game even when they don’t have a group to play with.
What is Riichi Mahjong?
Riichi Mahjong is a specific variation of mahjong that involves unique rules such as declaring ‘riichi’ to indicate a ready hand and the use of bonus ‘dora’ tiles. It has evolved from Chinese mahjong and is known for its complexity and popularity, especially influenced by anime and online platforms.