Where were Sudoku puzzles first published?

Although some newspapers would have us believe that those frustrating but addictive 9 by 9 squares and their seemingly endless variants have their roots in Japanese antiquity, this is not, in fact, the case.

The first puzzles of this nature appeared not in Japan, but in France, and not until the late 19th century. The original puzzles also required some mathematical ability, but were amended so only logic was needed. Although they became something of a craze, their popularity faded with the First World War, and their revival is generally credited to Howard Garns (1905-1989), an American architect and freelance setter of puzzles. He originally called the puzzle "Number Place" and there is debate as to whether he was familiar with the French puzzles of earlier years or not.

The puzzle did not appear in Japan itself until as recently as 1984, although the name by which it is now almost universally known does derive from the Japanese, and is a shortened form of words meaning "the digits must be single". The name has now been copyrighted.