Japanese emoticons are extremely diverse. Kaomoji is a result of manga and anime fans who wanted to correct those mistakes, avoid awkward writing situations, and express words more creatively. In the beginning of internet and instant messaging – lack of face-to-face talk resulted in mistakenly taking parodies and humorous jokes the wrong way. 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. Many Japanese are good at drawing because Japanese is the language of drawings. In addition, kaomoji are so popular because you don’t have to read them sideways.
Therefore, unlike Western emoticons where most attention is paid to mouth, in Japanese emoticons the most important part are eyes. Japanese believe that eyes are the mirror of a human soul. Therefore, in Japan emoticons are popular as nowhere in the world.
Japanese are very emotional and creative nation.
This concept is formed by the combination of two words in Kanji, “kao” (顔 – “face”) and “moji” (文字 – “character”). The word kaomoji is also synonymous to be referred to as Japanese emoticons. Kaomoji (顔文字) is a popular Japanese emoticon style made up of Japanese characters and grammar punctuations, and are used to express emotion in texting and cyber communication.
