Japanese logic puzzles are a huge family of grid-based puzzles shaped by magazines, publishers and puzzle makers in Japan. Some, like Sudoku, Kakuro and Nonogram, are known worldwide. Others, like Nurikabe, Masyu, Hashi and Akari, are favourites among solvers who enjoy pure deduction.
Use this guide as a catalogue of puzzle styles. Each entry explains the basic idea, while playable titles link naturally from the puzzle name.
Japanese logic puzzles list
The list below is grouped by solving style. Linked names are playable on this site; unlinked names are included as useful reference entries.
Number-grid Japanese logic puzzles
Number-grid Japanese logic puzzles use digits, candidates, sums, inequalities, visibility clues or ordered values inside a structured grid. This group targets Japanese number puzzles and Nikoli-style arithmetic logic puzzles such as Sudoku, Kakuro, Futoshiki, KenKen, Skyscrapers and related Sudoku variants.
Sudoku
Sudoku is the best-known Japanese-style number puzzle: fill every row, column and box without repeating a digit. Its popularity comes from a very small rule set that still supports deep solving techniques.
Killer Sudoku
Killer Sudoku keeps the familiar Sudoku grid and adds cages with sum clues. It suits solvers who like candidate logic mixed with small arithmetic combinations.
Kakuro
Kakuro is a cross-sum puzzle where each run of cells must add to a clue without repeating digits. It feels like a numerical crossword, with every crossing helping narrow the answer.
Futoshiki
Futoshiki uses a Latin-square grid with inequality signs between neighbouring cells. The greater-than and less-than clues make it quick to learn and very direct to solve.
KenKen
KenKen combines no-repeat rows and columns with arithmetic cages. Each cage total adds a calculation constraint on top of the placement logic.
Calcudoku
Calcudoku is closely related to KenKen, using arithmetic cages and row-column restrictions. It is a useful reference entry for solvers who enjoy calculation-driven grid puzzles.
Suko
Suko is a small number-placement puzzle built around regional totals. The grids are compact, but each digit often has to satisfy several overlapping sum clues.
Suguru
Suguru uses irregular regions and a rule that matching numbers cannot touch. It has a Sudoku-like feel, but the region shapes create tighter local deductions.
Hidato
Hidato asks you to complete a consecutive number path through the grid. Given numbers act as anchors, and the solve is about fitting the missing steps into the only possible route.
Skyscrapers
Skyscrapers treats numbers as building heights. Edge clues tell you how many buildings are visible from each direction, combining Latin-square logic with line-of-sight reasoning.
Thermometers
Thermometers uses thermometer shapes where values increase from bulb to tip. The visual ordering clues make it easy to spot low, high and forced cells.
Binary
Binary puzzles use only two symbols, usually 0 and 1. Rows and columns must stay balanced and avoid long repeats, so the solving is clean pattern deduction.
Str8ts
Str8ts divides the grid into straight white runs that must contain consecutive digits. Black cells split the board into smaller streets with their own candidate ranges.
Arrow Sudoku
Arrow Sudoku is a Sudoku variant where digits along an arrow add to the circled digit. It is a natural next step for Sudoku solvers who like sum logic.
Sandwich Sudoku
Sandwich Sudoku uses outside clues showing the sum of digits between 1 and 9 in a row or column. The clues create long-range pressure across the grid.
Kropki Sudoku
Kropki Sudoku marks neighbouring cells that are consecutive or in a double relationship. Those small dot clues make adjacency a major part of the solve.
Shading and painting Japanese logic puzzles
Shading and painting Japanese logic puzzles are visual deduction puzzles where the answer emerges through black cells, painted regions, islands, walls, lights or hidden pictures. This section covers Picross and Nonogram-style puzzles as well as Nikoli-style grid puzzles like Nurikabe, Hitori, Akari, Heyawake and Tapa.
Nonogram / Picross
Nonogram, also known as Picross, uses row and column clues to decide which cells are filled. The finished grid often reveals a picture, but the solving is pure deduction.
Nurikabe
Nurikabe divides the grid into numbered islands separated by one connected wall. It is a classic Japanese logic puzzle because local island growth and global wall connectivity constantly interact.
Hitori
Hitori starts with a filled number grid and asks you to shade duplicates until every row and column is clean. The twist is that you remove numbers instead of placing them.
Kuromasu
Kuromasu uses numbered cells that count visible white cells in straight lines. You shade other cells while keeping the remaining white area connected.
Heyawake
Heyawake is a room-based shading puzzle with clues about how many cells are shaded in each room. Its restrictions on adjacent shaded cells and long white corridors create elegant deductions.
Akari
Akari, or Light Up, asks you to place lamps so every open cell is illuminated. Numbered walls control nearby lamps, and no two lamps may shine on each other.
Tapa
Tapa uses clue numbers to describe groups of shaded cells around a clue. Good Tapa puzzles create a strong mix of local pattern logic and whole-grid wall connectivity.
Norinori
Norinori asks you to shade domino pairs inside each region. The rule set is tiny, but the two-cell shape requirement creates precise placement logic.
LITS
LITS places tetromino-shaped shaded areas inside regions while keeping the shaded cells connected. It rewards spatial reasoning and careful shape elimination.
Fillomino
Fillomino asks you to divide the grid into numbered areas whose size matches the number inside them. It is a flexible region puzzle with satisfying growth and boundary deductions.
Mosaic
Mosaic gives local count clues for each cell and its neighbours. The puzzle feels visual, but each step is a small deduction about which nearby cells must be painted.
Yin-Yang
Yin-Yang divides the grid into black and white cells so both colours stay connected and no 2x2 block is all one colour. It is simple to state and surprisingly rich.
Nurimisaki
Nurimisaki is a shading puzzle built around numbered cape cells and a connected sea. It is included as a useful reference for solvers exploring deeper Nikoli-style genres.
Cave / Bag
Cave, also called Bag, asks you to draw or shade a single cave-like area that satisfies sightline clues. It is a strong example of Japanese area and connectivity logic.
Shakashaka
Shakashaka asks you to place triangles around numbered blocks so the remaining white space forms rectangles. It blends shading, geometry and local clue counting.
Line, loop and connection Japanese logic puzzles
Line, loop and connection Japanese logic puzzles replace filled numbers with drawn structure: loops, routes, bridge networks, symmetry regions or non-crossing links. They are the right category for solvers searching for Japanese loop puzzles, path puzzles, connection puzzles and Nikoli-style drawing puzzles such as Slitherlink, Masyu, Hashi and Numberlink.
Slitherlink
Slitherlink asks you to draw one closed loop around cell edges. Number clues tell how many surrounding edges are used, making it one of the cleanest Japanese loop puzzles.
Masyu
Masyu is a loop puzzle with white and black pearl clues. Each pearl controls whether the loop turns or goes straight nearby, creating compact but expressive path logic.
Yajilin
Yajilin combines loop drawing with shaded cells and arrow clues. The arrows count shaded cells in a direction, while the loop must travel through the remaining open cells.
Numberlink
Numberlink connects matching numbers with paths that do not cross. Easy boards feel intuitive, but harder ones depend on route blocking and forced corridor logic.
Hashi
Hashi, or Bridges, connects numbered islands with horizontal and vertical bridges. The goal is one connected network with each island receiving exactly its clue number.
Galaxies / Tentai Show
Galaxies, also known as Tentai Show, divides the grid into rotationally symmetric regions around marked centers. It is a gentle-looking puzzle with strong spatial constraints.
Country Road
Country Road is a loop puzzle that travels through rooms while obeying entry and exit restrictions. It is a useful reference entry for solvers who like room-based path logic.
Arukone
Arukone is a connection puzzle related to Numberlink. Matching endpoints must be joined by non-crossing paths, so the challenge is fitting routes without wasting space.
Placement and region Japanese logic puzzles
Placement and region Japanese logic puzzles ask where objects, stars, tents, ships, rectangles, borders or room contents can legally go. They cover Japanese-style object-placement puzzles, region-division puzzles and compact grid logic games like Shikaku, Star Battle, Tents and Trees, Battleship and Tatamibari.
Tents and Trees
Tents and Trees asks you to place one tent next to each tree while matching row and column counts. Tents cannot touch, which makes the deductions clean and beginner-friendly.
Star Battle
Star Battle places stars so every row, column and region has the required count. Because stars cannot touch, the puzzle creates strong exclusion patterns.
Queens
Queens and crown-style puzzles place one piece in each row, column and region without attacks or touching constraints. They are compact, modern placement puzzles with quick deductions.
Shikaku
Shikaku divides the grid into rectangles, each containing one number that gives its area. It is a calm Japanese region puzzle built on factor pairs and boundary logic.
Battleship
Battleship hides a fleet in the grid using row and column counts plus non-touching ship rules. It is a familiar placement puzzle that still offers solid deduction.
Ripple Effect / Hakyuu
Ripple Effect, or Hakyuu, fills rooms with numbers while keeping equal numbers apart by distance rules. The name fits the way each number sends restrictions outward.
Tatamibari
Tatamibari divides the grid into rectangles using clues that describe how a rectangle touches its neighbours. It is a deeper reference entry for solvers who enjoy region division.
How to choose a Japanese logic puzzle
If you like numbers, start with Sudoku, Kakuro, Futoshiki or KenKen. If you like visual deduction, try Nonogram, Nurikabe, Akari or Shikaku. If you prefer drawing, Slitherlink, Masyu, Hashi and Numberlink are usually the most natural next steps.
Difficulty can vary wildly inside the same puzzle type, so the name of the puzzle is only part of the story. A small Nurikabe can be gentle, while a larger one can become a serious test of connected-area logic.
For a first Japanese logic puzzle, choose Sudoku, Nonogram, Futoshiki or Tents and Trees.
For pure no-guessing deduction, try Kakuro, Akari, Nurikabe, Slitherlink or Masyu.
For visual, relaxing solving, try Nonogram, Shikaku, Galaxies, Mosaic or Yin-Yang.
Play Japanese logic puzzles online
A printed Japanese logic puzzle is still lovely, but online versions make it easier to undo, check mistakes, change grid sizes and learn a new rule set without redrawing the board.
Every linked title in the list opens a playable puzzle page. Unlinked entries are kept as reference items, so the guide still covers the wider Japanese logic puzzle family.
Japanese Logic Puzzles FAQ
What are Japanese logic puzzles?
They are deduction puzzles strongly associated with Japanese puzzle culture, especially grid puzzles made popular by magazines, publishers and Japanese-style puzzle communities.
Is Sudoku a Japanese logic puzzle?
Sudoku has international roots but became globally famous through Japanese puzzle publishing, so it is usually included in Japanese logic puzzle roundups.
Are Picross and Nonogram the same thing?
Picross is a well-known brand-style name for Nonogram puzzles. Both describe picture logic puzzles solved from row and column clues.
Which Japanese logic puzzle should beginners try first?
Sudoku, Nonogram, Futoshiki, Tents and Trees and Shikaku are friendly starting points because their rules are easy to learn.