The ultimate guide to understanding Japanese Kaomoji
October 7, 2009 by Juergen Specht · 26 Comments
In Japan hardly any email or IM message get written which doesn’t contain some form of smileys or emoticons.
While emoji (graphical presentations of emoticons) are probably most known, “kaomoji” (from “kao” = face, “moji” = character) are the Japanese version of Western emoticons and there are practically endless variations available. The biggest difference to the Western counterpart is probably that they are read horizontally and you don’t need to turn your head to understand them, for example the Western emoticon for “Happy” looks like this :-) while the Japanese version looks like this (^_^).
There are many stereotypes about how the Japanese convey emotions and feelings, the most popular one is probably “the Japanese show no emotion“, but in fact the rich culture of kaomoji shows just how different the perception between Westerners and Japanese is. To fill in this blank, lovely Ako and I decided to create the ultimate visual guide to Japanese kaomoji.
Smiling
Snobbish, arrogant
Speaking apathetically
Happy, laughing
Apologizing, being sorry or asking for a favor
Cheeky or slightly upset
Scared, troubled or shocked
Cheerful happy, as in “…yes!!!”
Grumpy, annoyed
Blushing of happyness
Annoyed, troubled
Angry, hatred
Shocked, disappointed
Worried, feeling lost, insecure about something
Puzzled, confused
Apathetic, dissatisfied, arrogant
Sad, starting to cry
Sleeping or sleepy
Sleepy or tired
Shocked
“Please…!” as in “Please buy me the golden 44 carat ring!”
Kissing, happy
Embarrassed
Winking
Joyful
Burst into laughing
To make an excuse, to calm people down or a sad goodbye
Joyful, Happy
Cheeky and happy
Crying
(^-^)
well, am an exception, I guess.
’cause they say am too emotional & the expressions are endless…
and I’ve got such a poor variation of ‘kaomoji’ which is only this : )
well, sorry for keeping to turn your head all the time! : ) : ) : )
Haha, you found my blog! (^_^)
Mhm, a :) is very limiting! You could start using the Australian version, which is (: (they are upside down after all). Or just learn from Akochan, she has a huge repertoire of emoji and kaomoji!
See yah! (^O^)/
heeey! i found you ! and this is my favorite entry :D
i was so amazed that ako san has got such a lot of expressions on her face!
You found me too! (^_-)
Yeah, isn’t she? Hehe.
d[-.-]b
何このサイトｗｗｗｗｗｗｗｗ
日本人でよかったああああああああああヽ(=＾ﾟωﾟ)＾/
………..φ(･ω･ )
(He writes, “What is this site? hahahahaha. I’m glad I’m Japanese”.)
(Note: wwww is sort of short for 笑 or 笑う , warau or ‘to laugh’. Roughly translates to hahahaha or lolololol).
これは日本語の顔文字を説明するための記事です。
(This is an article to explain Japanese kaomoji.)
Ha ha ha… I’m rolling on the floor, helppess with laughter. Great job, Ako-san! （＾▽＾）
There’s a lot more actually n one which i like to use… (n_n)
This is amazing~
Well done!
よくできました～
I can’t believe you actually managed to make all of those faces ^___^
Those faces are scary… O_O Some should probably not be attempted by real people.