Kaomoji
Japanese emoticons and what they mean
Japanese emoticons, called kaomoji in Japan, are text faces and figures you read without tilting your head: (^^) is a smile, and orz is a person on their knees in defeat. Below are the ones common in Japanese chats and forums, what each one means, the katakana sound words that often ride along after a face, and how to type them.
50 to copy · Updated 6 October 2026
Tap one to copy it, then paste it into your bio, a caption or a comment.
Everyday faces from Japanese chats · 14
Classics from Japanese forums · 9
Faces with a sound word · 14
Bows, salutes and kneeling · 7
Annoyed and pouting · 6
Ready-made lines for bios and captions
How Japanese faces differ from :-) and :-(
| Instead of | Japanese style | What carries the feeling |
|---|---|---|
| :-) | (^^) or (^_^) | Eyes curved into arcs; the mouth is optional |
| ;-) | (^_-)-☆ | One shut eye, often with a star flying off |
| :-( | (´・ω・｀) or (；_；) | Drooping brows, or tears in place of eyes |
| :-D | (^o^) or (*´∀`*) | An open mouth under happy eyes |
| :-O | ( ﾟдﾟ) | Tiny round eyes over a gaping mouth |
| >:-( | (｀Д´) or (#ﾟДﾟ) | Slanted brows, a shouting mouth and sometimes an anger vein |
| lol | w, www or (笑) | Not a face at all; see the section on orz, w and 草 below |
Everyday Japanese messages often drop the brackets: ^^ on its own is a smile and ^^; an embarrassed one, with the semicolon as a bead of sweat. Marks outside the eyes add a blush, so the asterisks in (*^^*) and the o’s in (o^^o) are glowing cheeks. A face left open, such as (^^;, is not a typo either; it is a common shorthand.
The Japanese characters hiding in the faces
Many face parts are ordinary characters chosen for their shape, and a few carry a small joke for anyone who reads Japanese.
| Part | What it really is | What it draws |
|---|---|---|
| ∀ | The maths sign for “for all”, an upside-down A | A wide, laughing mouth, as in ( ´∀｀) |
| ヽ ノ | A katakana repeat mark and the katakana letter no | Arms thrown up, as in ヽ(´ー｀)ノ |
| ゞ | A hiragana repeat mark | A hand raised to the brow in a salute |
| ﾟ | The small circle that turns ha into pa, in half-width form | Small, round, staring eyes |
| 皿 | The kanji for “plate” | Bared, clenched teeth: (｀皿´) |
| つ ⊂ | Hiragana tsu and the maths sign for “subset of” | Two fists rubbing at the eyes: (つд⊂) |
| ε | The Greek letter epsilon | Pushed-out, pouting lips |
| ゝ | Another hiragana repeat mark | A smug, lopsided mouth: ( ´_ゝ`) |
| # | A number sign | The cross-shaped anger vein from manga, the same idea as the 💢 emoji |
The sound words after the face
Japanese has a large stock of onomatopoeia: words for sounds, and also for movements and feelings that make no sound at all. Kaomoji borrow them like captions. ﾆﾔﾘ (niyari) is the look of a sly grin, ｽﾔｧ (suyā) is someone sleeping soundly, ｳﾏｰ (umā) is a drawn-out “tasty”, and ｺﾞｼｺﾞｼ (goshi goshi) is a rubbing motion, here rubbing your eyes in disbelief.
The words are usually typed in half-width katakana, narrow letters such as ｷ and ﾀ. In the Shift_JIS encoding that Japanese computers long used, each of these took one byte instead of two, and on forums they became a style of their own. ｷﾀ━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━!! (“it’s here!”) and ＼(^o^)／ｵﾜﾀ (“it’s over”, said with a grin) are two of the best known.
Tip: If most of your followers don’t read Japanese, the sound word reads as decoration at best. Keep the face and drop the katakana, or say what it means in plain words.
orz, w and 草: text that travels with the faces
- orz draws a person kneeling with their head on the floor, seen from the side: o is the head, r the arms and back, z the folded legs. The pose matches dogeza, the deepest Japanese apology, but orz usually means defeat played for laughs.
- It was first used in late 2002 on the forum of Techside, a Japanese personal website. A poster typed _|￣|○ to show a cable and its cover, others thought it looked like someone kneeling, and the figure caught on.
- OTL, OTZ and STO are variations on the same figure, in different letters or facing the other way.
- w after a sentence is laughter, short for warai (笑い, a laugh), and www is laughing harder. A long row of w looks like blades of grass, so 草 (kusa, grass) became slang for “that’s funny”.
- (笑) at the end of a sentence works like “lol” or “haha” in brackets.
How to type Japanese emoticons
- Windows 10 and 11: press the Windows key and the full stop together to open the emoji panel, then switch to its kaomoji tab.
- Android: Gboard’s emoji panel has a tab of text faces, Japanese ones included.
- Japanese keyboards: type かお (kao, face) and look through the conversion suggestions; many Japanese input methods offer a list of faces there.
- Anywhere else: copy a face from this page. Half-width katakana and ω paste as normal text into Instagram, Facebook and Messenger.
Questions people ask
Are Japanese emoticons the same as kaomoji?
Yes. Kaomoji (顔文字) is the Japanese word, built from 顔 (kao, face) and 文字 (moji, written characters). In English both names cover the same upright faces, from (^^) to (´・ω・｀).
What does orz mean?
It means “I give up” or “I’m crushed”, drawn as a tiny figure on its hands and knees. People use it for small defeats, like a failed exam or a burnt dinner, and it reads as self-mocking rather than truly upset.
What does ＼(^o^)／ mean in Japanese?
On its own it is a cheer, hands thrown up as in a banzai. With ｵﾜﾀ (owata, “it’s over”) after it, it turns ironic: a cheerful face for “I’m done for”, used when a test, a deadline or a plan has gone badly wrong.
What does (´・ω・｀) mean?
It is called shobon (ショボーン), the face of someone deflated or let down. The droopy brows and small ω mouth make it sad in a mild, almost cute way, so it suits small disappointments: a sold-out item, a cancelled plan, rain on a day off.
What do ^^ and ^^; mean?
^^ is a smile: the eyes of (^^) without the brackets, common in Japanese and Korean chats. ^^; adds a drop of sweat, so it becomes an embarrassed or awkward smile, a bit like “ha, oops”.
Related pages
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