Ideograph Emojis
12 emojis tagged ideograph in the official Unicode CLDR project. Click any emoji for its meaning, copy-paste, and per-platform rendering.
Ideograph emojis are Japanese kanji-based buttons — 🈶 'not free of charge' button, 🈯 'reserved' button, 🉐 'bargain' button, 🈹 'discount' button, 🈚 'free of charge' button, 🈲 'prohibited' button, 🉑 'acceptable' button, 🈸 'application' button, 🈺 'open for business' button, 🈵 'no vacancy' button, and 🈷 'monthly amount' button. Each renders a single kanji character in a colored square or circle, originally designed for Japanese mobile signage and commerce contexts. Outside Japan they're mostly used as cryptic decorative symbols or in posts about Japanese culture.
- 🈶 Japanese “not free of charge” button
- 🈯 Japanese “reserved” button
- 🉐 Japanese “bargain” button
- 🈹 Japanese “discount” button
- 🈚 Japanese “free of charge” button
- 🈲 Japanese “prohibited” button
- 🉑 Japanese “acceptable” button
- 🈸 Japanese “application” button
- 🈴 Japanese “passing grade” button
- 🈳 Japanese “vacancy” button
- 🈵 Japanese “no vacancy” button
- 🈺 Japanese “open for business” button
Frequently asked about ideograph emojis
What do the Japanese button emojis actually say?
Each shows a specific kanji: 🈶 'yū' (有, has/charged), 🈚 'mu' (無, none/free), 🈯 'shi' (指, reserved), 🉐 'toku' (得, bargain), 🈹 'wari' (割, discount). They were designed for Japanese consumer signage — signs in stores or on vending machines. Most non-Japanese users see them as abstract symbols.
Why do these even exist in international Unicode?
Backward compatibility. When Unicode standardized emoji in 2010, it absorbed the entire existing Japanese carrier emoji set wholesale, including all Japanese-specific signage. Removing them later would break old messages, so they persist forever as cultural artifacts of emoji's Japanese origins.
More emojis like ideograph
Vector-matched by meaning — similar uses or feelings.
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