Maki Kaji Goes to Washington for Sudoku

November 4, 2009

Maki Kaji is the owner and president of Nikoli Company, which began publishing a version of the puzzle in 1980 and gave it its current name. A huge success in Japan, it took twenty years for the puzzle to gain popularity in the West, first in 2004 when The Times of London published the first game and finally in the U.S. in the summer of 2005.

Today, the game appears in more than 600 newspapers, on thousands of websites, and in books in more than 70 countries.

Unfortunately, Kaji didn't patent the game, which allowed it to spread around the world quickly, but sadly, left him unable to reap all the benefits of its success.

Not to worry. Nikoli develops some 1,000 puzzles and other games every month. Generating one puzzle can take hours of processing by the company's motley crew of puzzle writers, which include housewives, teenagers, university students, and businessmen.

In an interview with The Asia-Pacific Journal about how his life has changed, Kaji said he no longer has to go out and beg people to buy his puzzles. "I always found it stressful having to bow to people, so lately life has been more comfortable," he said. “Now that I'm on a more equal footing I can finally relax and enjoy meeting people."

Maki Kaji will be at Busboys & Poets on Wednesday, Nov.  4, 2009, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. His visit is supported by the Japan-America Society of Washington, D.C.

Sources: Busboys and Poets, The Asia-Pacific Journal, Sudoku Daily.