Unless you have been living in a cave over the past few months, you have most certainly noticed that there’s a big buzz with Sudoku lately. While it is not actually originating from Japan, it is in Japan that Sudoku became popular for the first time and was named Sudoku by a Japanese company, Nikoli, in 1984. Sudoku is the Japanese abbreviation of “Suuji wa dokushin ni kagiru (数字は独身に限る)”. According to Wikipedia, it means “the digits must remain single” which is the basic principle of the game. This phrase is also a pun in my opinion because another possible interpretation is “digits are restricted to single people”, in other words, to otaku.
It was brought in 2005 by a New Zealander called Wayne Gould to England which is famous for its crosswords and puzzles culture. It soon became popular here in France too, to such an extent that now every single newspaper has its own Sudoku grid everyday. In supermarkets, at the checkout, next to the TV program of the week, you can now buy “100 Sudoku” little books. Sudoku is everywhere.
There are a few interesting things to say about this phenomenon. First off, I’m a bit surprised because until recently, crosswords and puzzles looked quite old-fashioned, at least among the young population. Now, many students are doing crosswords or Sudoku during lectures. For some reasons, it also seems to make sound cool. Incidentally, on TV there is a general trend towards games or shows that does not require one to think whereas Sudoku, although simple, requires reflection and concentration. This game also shows that people get somewhat more and more solitary nowadays as people doing Sudoku are generally alone or commuting.
Of course, companies have quickly understood that it was a good way to make money easily. Sudoku is a simple game that anyone can understand regardless of culture and language. There exists a number of algorithms to generate puzzles automatically, possibilities are infinite.