Japanese Emoji Meanings: What ๐, ๐ฎ, ๐ฐ and ๐ข Mean in Japan
Emoji were drawn for Japanese phones, so plenty of them picture everyday Japan. ๐ is please and thank you, ๐ฎ is a teacher's gold star, and ๐ฐ is a mark the law puts on new drivers' cars. Read literally, they say something else.
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Emoji is a Japanese word, ็ตตๆๅญ, "picture character", and the first sets were drawn for Japanese mobile phones. So a fair number of them picture everyday life in Japan: the flower a teacher draws on good homework, the sticker a new driver has to put on their car, the throbbing vein a manga artist draws on an angry character. Anyone who grew up in Japan reads them at a glance; everyone else guesses from the picture and often guesses wrong. Here are the short answers first, then the Japanese emoji meanings one group at a time, each checked against Unicode's Japanese data, a Japanese dictionary or Japanese law.
- ๐ In Japan, pressed palms mean please and thank you, and sometimes sorry. Prayer is only one reading.
- ๐ฎ The hanamaru, a teacher's mark for very good work. It has nothing to do with white flowers.
- ๐ฐ The mark Japanese law puts on a newly licensed driver's car, and by extension "I'm new at this".
- ๐ข A popping vein from manga. It means annoyed; it is not a decorative pattern.
- ๐ณ and ๐ต Boxed kanji read the Japanese way: ็ฉบ means space available, ๆบ means full.
Why some emoji only make sense in Japan
Because they were drawn for Japanese phone users first. From the late 1990s, Japanese carriers each built their own set of picture characters so that text messages could carry faces and symbols. Some were already in the standard; Unicode 6.0, released in October 2010, added the rest, together with a mapping table called EmojiSources.txt: 722 entries linking Unicode characters to the codes used by NTT DoCoMo, KDDI (au) and SoftBank. Every example card on this page traces back to at least one of those carrier sets.
The English-speaking world got these characters second-hand, and their English names mostly describe the picture. The emoji list on this site takes its names from Unicode's CLDR project, and the Japanese edition of that same data often names the meaning instead. ๐ฎ is "white flower" in English and ็ฝ่ฑ, white flower, in Traditional Chinese. In Japanese it is ๅคงๅคใใใงใใพใใ, "very well done". The rest of this article walks through that gap.
What ๐ means in Japan: please, thank you, and sorry
๐ shows two palms pressed together. In Japan that gesture, te o awaseru, has long been a way to show gratitude or to plead, and the Daijisen dictionary defines it in exactly those terms. So a ๐ at the end of a Japanese message usually means "please" or "thank you": asking a coworker to cover a shift, or thanking someone for a parcel that arrived.
CLDR's Japanese keywords for ๐ include ใใใใจใ (thank you), ใ้กใ (please), ใใใใชใใ (sorry), ๅๆ (palms together) and ็ฅใ (prayer), and its Japanese name is ็ฅใ. Prayer is a valid reading in Japan too; thanks, requests and apologies are what it does in everyday messages. For a deeper apology or a formal favour there is ๐, whose Unicode name is PERSON BOWING DEEPLY. Its Japanese keywords include ใใใ (bow), ่ฌ็ฝช (apology) and ๅไธๅบง, the kneeling bow with the forehead to the floor.
Folded hands
Please, thank you, and sometimes sorry. In Japan pressing your palms together has long meant thanks or an earnest request; prayer is one reading among several.
Person bowing
A deep bow: a serious apology or a formal "please". Its Unicode name is PERSON BOWING DEEPLY.
๐ฎ, ๐ and ๐ : circles and crosses on Japanese homework
๐ฎ is the hanamaru, "flower circle", that Japanese teachers draw on good answers and good work: a circle with a ring of petals around it. The Daijisen dictionary defines it as the mark added to well-done answers and work at elementary school and the like. Get a ๐ฎ and you are being told you did well; the flower is incidental. CLDR's Japanese keywords for it also include ใใใงใใพใใ, "well done".
The hanamaru sits on top of a wider Japanese habit: โ (maru) marks an answer as correct or a pass, and ร (batsu) marks something as not allowed or no good. Emoji turned the pair into two people. ๐, Unicode name FACE WITH OK GESTURE, raises both arms over the head to make a circle with the whole body; its Japanese keywords include ไธธ (circle) and OK. ๐ , Unicode name FACE WITH NO GOOD GESTURE, crosses the arms into an X; its keywords include ใใ (the cross), NG and ใ ใ (no good). โญ and โ carry the same pair, and โ's Japanese name is simply ใใ. If a Japanese friend answers your question with โญ, that is a yes.
White flower (hanamaru)
The hanamaru a Japanese teacher draws on good work. Its Japanese name is ๅคงๅคใใใงใใพใใ, "very well done".
Person gesturing OK
Arms over the head in a circle: the Japanese maru, meaning yes, correct, OK.
Person gesturing NO
Arms crossed in an X: the Japanese batsu, meaning no, wrong, not allowed.
Emoji that came from manga: ๐ข, ๐ฆ, ๐ช, ๐ค
Japanese comics have a shorthand of little symbols for feelings, and several of them became emoji. ๐ข is a vein popping on an angry character. Its Japanese CLDR name is ใใใฃ (mukatt), the word for temper suddenly flaring, and its keywords include ๆใใใผใฏ (anger mark) and ใใณใฌ (manga). ๐ฆ is the manga sweat drop. Its Japanese name is ใใใใ (ase-ase), flustered enough to sweat, and in Japanese messages it often trails a sentence to say "sorry, I'm in a rush" or "how embarrassing", as in ้ ใใพใ๐ฆ, "I'm running late".
The drop beside ๐ช is not a tear. It is a snot bubble, hana-jลchin or "nose lantern", which manga draw on someone dozing off, and ๐ช's Japanese name is ็ ใ, "sleepy". English CLDR keywords for it still include crying and sad, a sign that it is often taken for tears. ๐ค goes the other way. Its Unicode name is FACE WITH LOOK OF TRIUMPH and its Japanese name is ๅใก่ชใฃใ้ก, the smug huff of someone who just won, though ๆใ (anger) is among its Japanese keywords too. English CLDR calls it "face with steam from nose", with keywords such as angry and fuming, and in English-speaking chats it mostly reads as irritation or anger.
Anger symbol
The popping vein manga draw on an angry character. Its Japanese name, ใใใฃ, is the sound of temper flaring.
Sweat droplets
The manga sweat drop. Its Japanese name ใใใใ means flustered; at the end of a line it says "sorry, I'm in a rush".
Sleepy face
That drop is a snot bubble, the manga sign for dozing off, not a tear. Its Japanese name is ็ ใ, "sleepy".
Face with steam from nose
Unicode named it FACE WITH LOOK OF TRIUMPH, and its Japanese name still means a triumphant look: the smug huff after winning. English speakers often read it as anger.
Why ๐ฐ means beginner: Japan's new-driver mark
๐ฐ is the shoshinsha (beginner) mark, also called the wakaba (young leaf) mark: a yellow and green chevron shaped like a new shoot. Article 71-5 of Japan's Road Traffic Act requires anyone who has held an ordinary car licence for less than a year to display it on the front and the back of the car. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department spells out what happens if you don't: for an ordinary car, a 4,000 yen penalty payment (hansokukin) and one penalty point.
Because the mark is a familiar sight on Japanese roads, ๐ฐ has come to stand for being new at anything. CLDR's Japanese keywords include plain ๅๅฟ่ , "beginner", alongside the two names of the mark. Put a ๐ฐ in a first post or a profile and it reads as "I'm new here".
Japanese symbol for beginner
The shoshinsha or wakaba mark new drivers in Japan must display for a year, and by extension "I'm new at this".
๐, ๐น, ๐ต, ๐ณ: boxed kanji you read in Japanese
These began as signs in the Japanese carrier sets and became square or round buttons. Their Unicode names only give a code point (๐น is SQUARED CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-5272), so the meaning comes from the Japanese keywords. ๐ is otoku, a good deal. ๐น is waribiki, a discount. ๐ต is man, full: a packed train, a hotel with no rooms, a sold-out show, a car park with no spaces. ๐ณ is kลซ: rooms or seats available.
CLDR's English names are helpful here: the Japanese "bargain", "discount", "no vacancy" and "vacancy" buttons. The trap is for readers who know some Chinese characters, because the characters are familiar and the meanings are not. In Chinese, ็ฉบ suggests "empty, nothing there", ๅฒ suggests "cut" and ๅพ suggests "get", while the Japanese signs mean "space available", "discount" and "good value". The same family includes ๐ (free of charge), ๐ถ (not free), ๐ฒ (prohibited) and ใ๏ธ (congratulations).
Japanese "bargain" button
ๅพ as in otoku: a good deal, money well spent. Not "to get".
Japanese "discount" button
ๅฒ as in waribiki: a discount. It does not mean "cut".
Japanese "no vacancy" button
Full: a packed train, no rooms, no seats, a car park with no spaces.
Japanese "vacancy" button
Space available: free rooms or seats. The opposite of ๐ต, not "empty".
Festival emoji: ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐ and ๐ก through the Japanese year
A whole set of emoji is a calendar of Japanese seasonal events. ๐ is the kadomatsu, the pine arrangement set by the front gate at New Year; the Daijisen dictionary says it is thought to have begun as a place for the year god to alight. ๐ is the display of hina dolls for the Doll Festival on 3 March. ๐ is koinobori, the carp streamers that families with boys fly outdoors for the Boys' Festival on 5 May, borrowing the image of a carp swimming up a waterfall as a symbol of getting on in life; 5 May is now a public holiday, Children's Day. ๐ is the Tanabata tree for 7 July, a bamboo branch hung with coloured paper strips, tanzaku, with wishes written on them.
Autumn belongs to ๐ and ๐ก. ๐'s Japanese name is ๆ่ฆ, tsukimi, moon viewing, and its keywords include ๅไบๅค (the fifteenth night), ในในใญ (silver grass) and ๅฃๅญ (dumplings). On the fifteenth night of the eighth lunar month, the custom is to set out moon-viewing dumplings, taro and chestnuts and decorate with silver grass and autumn flowers to honour the moon. ๐ก is a skewer of dango, filed under ๅ่ๅญ, Japanese sweets. In 2026 that night falls on 25 September, the same night the Chinese-speaking world celebrates the Mid-Autumn Festival.
This year has a footnote. The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan points out that the mid-autumn moon falls on 25 September 2026, but the moon is not full until the 27th. A two-day gap is unusual: the last was in 2017, the next in 2043. Send a ๐ on the 25th and the moon may not look quite round, but the meaning is right.
Pine decoration (kadomatsu)
The pine arrangement set by the front gate at New Year, thought to have begun as a place for the year god to alight.
Carp streamer (koinobori)
Flown for the Boys' Festival on 5 May, now Children's Day, a public holiday in Japan.
Tanabata tree
Bamboo hung with paper strips carrying wishes, for Tanabata on 7 July.
Moon viewing ceremony
Tsukimi: dumplings and silver grass set out for the mid-autumn moon, which falls on 25 September in 2026.
Dango
Rice dumplings on a skewer, a traditional Japanese sweet (wagashi).
Other emoji that picture Japan
A few more only click once you see the Japanese name. ๐ looks like a little flame, but its Japanese keywords are ๅๆญ (name tag), ๅนผ็จๅ (kindergarten) and ไฟ่ฒๅ (nursery school): it is the name badge Japanese kindergarten children pin to their clothes, and the tulip shape is a common style. ๐ฎ's Unicode name is IZAKAYA LANTERN outright. Its Japanese name is ่ตคใกใใใกใ, the red lantern hung outside a bar, with ๅฑ ้ ๅฑ and ้ฃฒใฟๅฑ (a place for a drink) among its keywords.
Every example on this page came in the big 2010 batch, Unicode 6.0, so any phone that still gets system updates shows them and nobody gets an empty box. What varies is the reading. The same ๐ is thanks to a Japanese friend and prayer to someone else; the same ๐ค is named for a triumphant look in Japan and read as anger in a lot of English-speaking chats. Knowing where the other person grew up matters more than which emoji you pick.
How emoji got from Japanese phones into Unicode is in the explainer on what an emoji is, and how ๐ came to be mistaken for a high five is in the piece on internet emoji. The upright kaomoji style came out of Japan too, and this site has a full set to copy.
The illustrations on this page are AI-generated. They are not emoji artwork from any platform.