does American SNES games work on Japanese SNES?

[funsohng]

i owned Japanese SNES(I think it's called famicom) and gave it to my little cousin

and i was thinking of giving them a present when i visit.
my friend came and said that he owns A Link to the Past
so i thought it would be great to give A Link to the past to my cousins
but does American SNES games work on Famicom?