Kaomoji

Kaomoji are emoticons formed from Japanese characters to depict faces and actions, typically centered rather than sideways. The term combines kao, meaning face, and moji, meaning characters. They emerged in Japan during the late 1980s and 1990s on online forums and BBS, and later spread to mobile messaging and other digital communication.

Construction and form often involve a mix of punctuation, Latin letters, kana, and kanji to create expressions. Common examples include (^_^), (≧▽≦), (T_T), (╯°□°)╯, (＾▽＾), and the well-known shrug symbol ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Some forms incorporate Japanese characters such as ツ for the eyes, or other elements to convey mood and action, sometimes extending to full-bodied gestures like (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ.

Function and use center on conveying emotion and tone, including happiness, sadness, surprise, anger, and playfulness. Kaomoji can express subtleties that plain text or even some emojis may not capture, especially when combined with arms or motion indicators, as in (ノ^∇^)ノ or (╯︵╰).

In practice, kaomoji are popular in forums, chat apps, and social media across Japan and beyond, often used as an alternative or complement to emoji and stickers. With the expansion of Unicode and font support, an increasingly diverse set of kaomoji can be created and shared, reinforcing their role as a distinctive form of digital expression.