Japanese emoticons you read straight on, not sideways. Here is what a kaomoji is and how it differs from an emoji.
A kaomoji (Japanese 顔文字, literally “face characters”) is an emoticon you read upright, built by combining Unicode letters, punctuation, and symbols into a face — for example (≧▽≦) or ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Unlike Western emoticons such as :) that you read sideways, a kaomoji is already the right way up. And unlike an emoji (a single picture-character like 🙂), a kaomoji is plain text — so it pastes cleanly and looks the same wherever text works.
Kaomoji and emoticons are both plain text; emoji are dedicated picture characters that can render differently on each platform.
A kaomoji is assembled from brackets for the face outline, eyes and a mouth in the middle, and optional arms, cheeks, or decorations — for example ヽ(•‿•)ノ. Because every piece is a Unicode character, the whole face is just text you can copy, paste, and type anywhere.
Kaomoji emerged on Japanese message boards in the 1980s–1990s as a more expressive, upright alternative to Western emoticons. Japanese character sets offered a huge palette of symbols, which let creators build detailed faces — and the style spread worldwide as Unicode made those characters available everywhere.
Combine eyes, mouths, and arms into a custom text face, or copy ready-made ones from the library.
Open the Kaomoji Generator →Related: how to type kaomoji, the full kaomoji library, and what does UwU mean.
A kaomoji is a Japanese-style emoticon read upright, built from Unicode letters, punctuation, and symbols to form a face, such as (^_^). Unlike emoji, it is plain text.
Kaomoji comes from the Japanese words kao (face) and moji (character), literally face characters. It refers to emoticons you read the right way up.
A kaomoji is a face built from ordinary text characters and always looks the same. An emoji is a single dedicated picture character that can render differently on each device or platform.
Yes. Kaomoji originated on Japanese message boards and take advantage of the large set of Japanese symbols, though Unicode now makes them usable worldwide.
Combine a pair of brackets with eyes and a mouth, and add arms or decorations to taste, or use a kaomoji generator to assemble and copy one instantly.