Kaomoji (顔文字) is a popular Japanese emoticon style made up of Japanese characters and grammar punctuations and is used to express emotion in texting and cyber communication. The word kaomoji is also synonymous to be referred to as Japanese emoticons. This concept is formed by the combination of two words in Kanji, “Kao” (顔– “face”) and “Moji” (文字– “character”).
Japan is a creative and very emotional nation. In Japan, emoticons are popular as nowhere in the world.
Japanese believe that the eyes are the mirror of a human soul. Unlike Western emoticons where most attention is paid to the mouth, in Japanese emoticons, the most important part is the eyes. In addition, kaomoji are so popular because you don’t have to read them sideways.
Many Japanese are good at drawing because Japanese is the language of drawings. Anime and manga are vivid examples of how closely the authors manage to convey a variety of emotions just by a set of a few simple lines.
In the beginning of the internet and instant messaging– lack of face-to-face talk resulted in mistakenly taking parodies and humorous jokes the wrong way. Kaomoji is a result of manga and anime fans who wanted to correct those mistakes, avoid awkward writing situations, and express words more creatively.
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Japanese emoticons are extremely diverse. Some Internet sources state the number of 10000 but, in fact, there are much more of them. Such diversity may be explained by at least two factors.
- unlike Cyrillic and Latin alphabets, which are usually written in single-byte character sets, Japanese writing requires a minimum of double-byte sets with a wider scope of characters.
- kaomoji can express not only individual emotions, but also complex actions, objects, and even whole stories.
Japanese emoticons are divided into categories based on the emotional component of an object, form, or action. These emoticons can also use some special characters for additional connotations.
On this website, you can find an interesting collection of kawaii (cute) Japanese emojis compiled from various (mostly Japanese) internet sources. Since it is impossible to find and display all of them, we selected the cutest and most interesting ones, as well as added our own. In addition, we also developed an application for Android.
Feel free to use these Japanese emoticons. Mix and match the elements of different kaomoji and create your own creative options!
Kaomoji Japanese Text emojis
Positive Kaomoji
Joy Kaomoji
You can create joyful, happy, or laughing Japanese emoticons by adding high-up eyes. The following characters can be used: ^, ￣, ´ and `. Mouths are important too. Girls in Japan tend to use the character * (omega) for the mouths of their emoticons, thinking that they’re cute, or, as they say, kawaii. You can also use ∀, *, and other characters that resemble a smile. Also, the Japanese like to add different effects to kaomoji (stars, tears of joy, etc.) to make the message more emphasized.
You can copy emoticons by clicking on them
Love Kaomoji
The Japanese emoji for love and kissing often uses the character (heart) or its combination, such as ノ～ ♡ (air kiss). Also, the Japanese character “chu” can be used for a kiss (it means the sound of a kiss). Another interesting feature of love emoticons is the active use of such characters as * or o, which mean “rosy cheeks” and are frequently seen in conjunction with /, /, *, and ヽ. They are trying to hide their embarrassment by covering their faces. It is also possible to use the character ε (bow lips), which indicates the desire to hug and kiss. Such kaomoji are often joked about by Japanese girls as looking like perverts!
You can copy emoticons by clicking on them
Embarrassment Kaomoji
The following characters can be used to represent embarrassment; (something like a drop of sweat on a face), or a blushing character (*, o). Also, you can try making your emoticon cover its face with its hands in embarrassment.
You can copy emoticons by clicking on them
Sympathy Kaomoji
At least two Japanese emoticons are required to express sympathy or compassion: one of them will be upset, and the other will calm him down. For the first type, you can use kaomoji from the “sadness” category. The second one’s key element will be “a calming hand” (*, ノ’or ヾ) or “shoulder of support”.
You can copy emoticons by clicking on them
Negative Kaomoji
- Dissatisfaction
- Anger
- Fear
- Pain
- Sadness
Dissatisfaction
The facial wrinkles of a kaomoji can easily convey dissatisfaction. Dissatisfied or displeased Japanese emoticons can be expressed with > < characters. Additional wrinkles can be added with # characters. A well-chosen mouth can also demonstrate dissatisfaction, as can well-chosen eyes like _ _ . Anime and manga often make use of these techniques.
You can copy emoticons by clicking on them