Japanese Party Games: 20 Games From Japan, With Rules & Origins

Watch a Japanese variety show for ten minutes and you'll see a game you've never played: six comedians shouting station names in rhythm, or a whole panel holding up whiteboards at once to see if they wrote the same word. Japan has a deep bench of party games — nomikai (drinking party) games, school-trip games, TV games — and almost none of them have made it into English lists, which mostly stop at rock-paper-scissors.

This is the list we wished existed: twenty games that are actually played in Japan, with the rules written so you can run them tonight, the Japanese name so you can look up clips, where each one came from, and an honest note on which ones survive translation. Three of them are so good that we built an app around one of them; that's disclosed where it comes up.

All 20 Japanese party games at a glance

Sync games: say the same thing without talking (1, 5, 13, 14, 15)

The category Japan does best. Nobody wins alone — the whole table either syncs or doesn't, which is why these are the games that end up on variety shows.

1. The telepathy game — 以心伝心ゲーム (ishin denshin)

以心伝心 is a four-character Zen phrase meaning “heart to heart, without words” — the thing that happens between people who know each other well. The game named after it is the simplest thing on this page and the one we'd keep if we could keep only one.

1. A host reads a prompt: “a red food”, “a famous cat”, “something in a bathroom”, “a place for a first date”.
2. Everyone writes one answer in secret — on paper, a whiteboard, or a phone passed around.
3. On “se-no!” (the Japanese “ready, go”), everyone reveals at once.
4. Score: the number of people who wrote the same answer. Everyone matching is the goal; the table is the team.

Origin: a Japanese TV and school-trip staple for decades; the format shows up in 1980s variety shows and in every company retreat since. Why it works: the tension isn't “am I right?” but “are we the same?” — a sync game, not a trivia game. Two-person version: take ten prompts and count matches out of ten. Five out of ten is normal; nine is unsettling. Our full rules page with 200 prompts covers variations (word version, number version, drawing version).

The drawing version is what our app is built on. Instead of writing a word, two people draw the same prompt without watching each other, and the app overlays the two drawings and scores how alike they are — shape, placement, orientation, stroke, rhythm — out of 100. It's the telepathy game with a referee that can't be argued with.

5. The spinach game — ほうれん草ゲーム (hōrensō)

A rhythm-and-pointing game with one gimmick: the word is passed with a gesture, and the gesture tells you where it goes.

1. Sit in a circle. Everyone claps a steady beat.
2. The starter says “hōrensō” (spinach) while holding a fist out — right hand out means it passes to the right, left hand to the left, both hands means it jumps to whoever they point at.
3. The receiver must say “hōrensō” on the next beat with their own gesture. Miss the beat, use the wrong hand, or freeze, and you're out (or you drink).
4. Speed up every round.

Origin: a nomikai game from the 2000s, spread by university clubs. Say “spinach” in English and it's exactly as silly. The joke is that the word is meaningless; all the information is in the hands.

13. Sequence counting — せーの！数字ゲーム

Everyone closes their eyes. The group has to count from 1 to (number of players) with each person saying one number — but nobody knows who speaks next. If two people say a number at the same time, start over. Silence is allowed; it's the only way to win. Ten people usually take five or six attempts, and the moment the whole table gets to ten in silence is genuinely moving. Origin: theater warm-ups; in Japan it's a corporate-training favorite.

14. Association match — 連想ゲーム (rensō)

A word is given (“summer”). In secret, everyone writes the first three things they associate with it. Reveal; each match with another player is a point for both. Unlike the telepathy game, you want to be common, not clever — the person who wrote “fireworks, beach, watermelon” sweeps the round and the poet who wrote “the smell of tatami” gets nothing. The old NHK show 連想ゲーム (1969–1991) was the guess-the-word version; this table version is the nomikai one.

15. Silent ranking — 無言で並び替え

Without speaking or writing, the group lines up in order of something: birthday, wake-up time, how many countries you've visited, how much you like cilantro. Gestures only. Then everyone says their number and you see how close the line was. Five to twelve people, ninety seconds, and it beats every icebreaker HR has ever emailed you.

Deduction and bluffing games (3, 4, 7, 11)

4. Word Wolf — ワードウルフ

The best-known Japanese party game of the last decade, and the one most likely to be new to your friends.

1. Everyone gets a secret word. All but one person get the same word (“pancake”); one person — the wolf — gets a similar one (“waffle”). Nobody knows which they have.
2. Talk about your word for three minutes without saying it. “I have mine on Sunday mornings.” “Mine's better with syrup.”
3. Vote. If the group finds the wolf, the group wins. If the wolf survives — or guesses the majority word after being caught — the wolf wins.

Origin: conceived by game designer Shin Kawasaki in 2003 (rules posted on his blog that November), first published in a game book in 2012, then exploded through free smartphone apps from around 2015; a boxed card version followed in 2020. Why it's good: the wolf doesn't know they're the wolf, so the bluffing is honest at first and panicked later. It works in any language as long as the word pairs are close enough; we keep 200 English pairs sorted by difficulty.

3. NG Word — NGワードゲーム

“NG” is Japanese-English for “no good”. Each player gets a forbidden word on a sticky note on their forehead — visible to everyone but them. Then you just have a conversation, and everyone tries to trick each other into saying their word. Say yours and you're out. The last person standing wins. Origin: a Japanese TV format that became a nomikai game; the words are chosen to be nearly unavoidable (“yes”, “tomorrow”, “beer”). In English it works unchanged. The two-player version — write a word you think your partner will say and wait — is in our couples list.

7. King game — 王様ゲーム (ōsama game)

Everyone draws a numbered chopstick or slip; one is marked “king”. The king, not knowing who holds which number, issues a command by number: “number 3 has to do an impression of number 6.” Origin: the classic Japanese drinking game, going back to at least the 1980s. Honest note: in Japan it's notorious for dares that cross lines, so set a rule in advance — commands have to be things you'd do in front of your boss. Kept tame, it's a great game because the king never knows whom they're ordering around.

11. Epicenter — 震源地ゲーム (shingenchi)

One player leaves the room. The rest pick an “epicenter” — one person who will start movements (scratching their nose, crossing arms) that everyone else copies as fast as possible. The detective comes back, stands in the middle, and has three guesses to find the source. Five to twelve players; needs no equipment; the copying gets subtle and fast within two rounds.

Rhythm and timing games (2, 6, 8, 9, 19)

2. The Yamanote Line game — 山手線ゲーム

The Yamanote is the loop line around central Tokyo, and the original game is “name its stations in rhythm”. The general form is the one that's spread: a category is announced (“stations on the Yamanote Line”, “Studio Ghibli films”, “things in a fridge”), everyone claps a beat, and going around the circle you each name one on the beat. Miss the beat, repeat an answer, or blank, and you drink or you're out. Origin: the nomikai game, 1980s at the latest. In English: rename it after your own city's subway — “the Circle Line game”, “the L train game” — and the joke is identical. The category is the whole skill: “Pokémon” is easy, “Tokyo wards” ends someone's evening.

6. Pin Pon Pan — ピンポンパン

Around the circle in rhythm: first person says “pin”, second “pon”, third “pan” — and on “pan” they point at someone, who starts again with “pin”. Simple until it's fast. The named variation, Pin Pon Pan Pon, adds a fourth beat. Nomikai staple; works in any language because the words are nonsense.

8. Takenoko Nyokki — たけのこニョッキ

Everyone hunches down. Someone shouts “takenoko takenoko nyokkikki!” (bamboo shoot, sprouting). Then, one at a time and with no order, players shoot their hands up and shout “1 nyokki!”, “2 nyokki!”, and so on. If two people shout the same number at once, both are out. The last person left is also out. So the game is entirely about reading the room — going too early and too late are both fatal. Origin: a 2000s variety-show and school-trip game; Japanese kids know it from elementary school. It's the purest timing game on the page.

9. Kokon Tōzai — 古今東西

Literally “ancient and modern, east and west” — meaning “everything there is”. Same as the Yamanote Line game, but the opening chant is “kokon tōzai, [category]!” and there's less emphasis on rhythm and more on speed. Regional naming difference more than a different game; include both because you'll hear both.

19. Ichiro association — イチロー

Named after the baseball player. In rhythm: each player says “Ichirō” then a word associated with the previous player's word: “Ichirō, bat” → “Ichirō, cave” → “Ichirō, dark” → … Break the chain or the rhythm and you're out. It's the Yamanote Line game with a chain instead of a category, so the answers wander somewhere strange fast.

Physical and reaction games (10, 16, 17, 18, 20)

10. Acchi Muite Hoi — あっち向いてホイ

The rock-paper-scissors add-on every Japanese person plays from age four. After janken (rock-paper-scissors), the winner points up, down, left or right while saying “acchi muite hoi!” (“look that way!”), and the loser turns their head. If the loser turns the way the winner pointed, the winner wins the game. If not, back to janken. Two players, ten seconds, endlessly repeatable. Origin: popularized on TV in the 1970s. Works in English with no changes.

16. Fruit Basket — フルーツバスケット

Chairs in a circle, one fewer than players. Everyone is assigned a fruit (three or four kinds). The person standing in the middle calls a fruit; everyone with that fruit must swap seats and the caller grabs one. Call “fruit basket!” and everyone moves. The Japanese kindergarten version of musical chairs, and the adult version replaces fruits with statements: “anyone who's been to Osaka”, “anyone who cried at a movie this year” — which makes it an icebreaker in disguise.

17. Daruma-san fell over — だるまさんがころんだ

Japan's red-light-green-light. The “it” faces a wall and chants “da-ru-ma-san-ga-ko-ron-da” (ten syllables — that's the timer), then spins around; anyone caught moving is captured. Players creep up; whoever tags “it” frees everyone and the chase begins. Origin: a playground game since at least the early 20th century; Squid Game introduced the Korean cousin to the world. Works anywhere with ten metres of space.

18. Konpira Fune Fune — こんぴらふねふね

A geisha-house game from Kyoto, and the oldest thing on this page. Two players face each other across a small box or upturned cup. To a song (“Konpira fune fune…”), they alternate touching the box: if the box is there, touch it with an open palm; if your opponent has snatched it away, touch the table with a fist. Get it wrong, lose. The song speeds up. Origin: Edo-period tea houses; the song references the Konpira shrine on Shikoku. You can find the tune in ten seconds on YouTube and it's harder than it looks by the third verse.

20. Catch the fan — 扇子キャッチ / coaster catch

A reflex game played with whatever's on the table. One player holds a folded fan (or a coaster, or a chopstick) vertically, then drops it without warning; the other has to catch it before it hits the table. Alternate; count catches out of ten. Nomikai version: the fan is balanced on the edge of the table and flipped. Zero rules to learn, so it fills the gap while someone's explaining #4.

12. Shiritori — しりとり, and how to play it in English

The word-chain game: each word must start with the last syllable of the previous one (ringo → gorira → raion). In Japanese, a word ending in ん (n) ends the game because no word starts with it — that's the trap. In English the syllable rule doesn't work, so use the last letter (“apple → elephant → tiger”) and add the Japanese trap: any word ending in a chosen “death letter” (say, X) loses. Add a category (animals only, food only) and it becomes a real game. Two to ten players, endless, and the Japanese play it on every long car journey.

How to run a Japanese-style game night (from someone who's sat through a hundred nomikai)

• Someone is the MC. Japanese party games assume a host who calls the game, sets the rhythm and decides the penalties. Without one, rhythm games collapse. Appoint the loudest person.
• Penalties are tiny and immediate. A sip, a funny face, a one-line confession. The nomikai rule is that the game keeps moving; nobody stops to count points.
• Sync games first, deduction games last. The telepathy game and the spinach game warm up a room in five minutes. Word Wolf needs the room already warm.
• Keep the King game tame. Or skip it. It's on this list for completeness; the good version needs a group that trusts each other.

For games that need no explanation at all, our no-explanation party games list overlaps with this one. And for the Korean side of the table — the games from Squid Game and the ones Korean students actually play — see Korean drinking games.

Japanese party games FAQ