Kaomoji: Copy and Paste Japanese Text Faces (◕‿◕)

Kaomoji (顔文字) are Japanese text faces — 顔 kao means face, 文字 moji means character. Unlike Western emoticons that you read sideways 🙂 , kaomoji sit upright and put the emotion in the eyes: (◕‿◕) is calm, (≥▽≤) is delighted, (╥﹏╥) is in tears. Tap any face below to copy it — your recent picks collect in the draft bar so you can copy a whole row at once.

Kaomoji vs emoji vs emoticon

An emoticon is punctuation read sideways, like 🙂 . An emoji is a picture character rendered by the platform, like 😀 — its design changes from phone to phone. A kaomoji is built from ordinary Unicode characters, so it looks the same everywhere text does, and it can express things emoji sets never drew: a table flipped in rage, sparkles thrown in the air, a bear offering a hug.

How kaomoji are built

Every kaomoji is a small kit of parts. Eyes carry the emotion: ◕ ◕ is innocent, ≥ ≤ is squeezed shut with feeling, ° ° is shocked, T T is crying. The mouth is often ω (a cat-like pout), ‿ (a soft smile) or ▽ (an open grin). Arms and props do the acting — ノ and ヽ wave, ╯ flips tables, ⑅ offers a paw. Once you see the parts, you can build your own.

How to type kaomoji

Nobody types these character by character. Keep a library like this page open, tap to copy, and paste — or save your favourites in a notes app. On Japanese keyboards the word かおもじ suggests faces automatically, which is how they became everyday punctuation in Japan in the first place.

Kaomoji questions