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On all the Japanese devices I've used, emoji input is a separate "keyboard" (or rather a different mode in the standard keyboard). Some Japanese keyboards will

On all the Japanese devices I've used, emoji input is a separate "keyboard" (or rather a different mode in the standard keyboard). Some Japanese keyboards will sometimes suggest emoji during input conversion (the normal kana->kanji step), but it's a somewhat haphazard way of inputting them, and it's often easier just use the dedicated emoji input. The reason seems fairly clear to me: many emoji encode nuances that don't map easily to single words or small compounds in a way that's easy for a user to predict... [My old non-smart phone would suggest some emoji during input conversion (e.g. if you convert "ねこ", it would suggest "🐱" and "(=^ェ^=)" as well as "猫"), but my current (Japanese) Android phone doesn't seem to do any of that at all (using the vendor Japanese keyboard); to input emoji you need to use the emoji input... :]

kalleboo 12y ago
The Apple iOS and OS X Japanese keyboards suggest emoji for words along side the Kanji (your ねこ example) and that seems to be the main way the people around me enter them (I'm in Japan). It's easier to use since you don't have to go paging through 20 pages of emoji hunting for a particular one. I have yet to use Android since they added emoji support so I'm not sure what's going on there.
- snogglethorpe 12y ago
  Are the people around you using iphones? The iOS Japanese keyboard suggests a lot more emoji during normal input than the old pre-smart or Android Japanese phones I've used.... Anyway, the main point I'm trying to make is that the method of Japanese language input doesn't seem to adequately explain why emoji are so popular in Japan, because the support for conversion-based emoji input is haphazard even in Japan.
hrktb 12y ago
There is a separate emoji panel, but in my experience you tend to remember the name of the emoji used the most, and in 10-key mode it's pretty fast to type a 2 or 3 kana word. About the android phones, I was a bit surprised by the low quality of Japanese support. But I didn't try the ATOK keyboard nor the input available on Sony phones for instance, only the Google IME. To Apple's credit, they've been doing IME on the mac for long enough to have a very good integration of the emoji in the system dictionary. But really, my point was not only on the colourful emoji, but more on the fact that characters like ↑,♡,◎,△ are just unusable on a daily basis on a US/european computer, but are super easily summoned on a system with an IME. And Japanese people have been using these kind of pictograms in their communication for decades, the emoji used on the phones being just an advanced kind of the same thing. I think that would be the main cultural difference regarding to emoji.
- snogglethorpe 12y ago
  The Japanese android vendor keyboards do seem to be generally much more polished than google's effort, although the latter is ok for basic Japanese input. The main issue with conversion-based emoji seems to be discoverability.... Besides those reflecting basic concepts, there are tons of odd or intricate emoji that you'd never even imagine existed unless you saw them first; even once you know they exist, figuring out what input maps to them is at best a crap shoot (I've never found any way of getting the input system to tell you)....
  - hrktb 12y ago
    About discoverability, when you start being a heavy user, the next step is to have custom entries in the user dictionary. It's almost mandatory for 2chan style smileys[0] with 7 or 8 characters in a row, and it also helps for obscure characters, emoji or not (there was a time "girl moji"[1] was a thing, with every letter splitted into 2 or 3 parts. I can't imagine that thing working without having all the letters in a user dictionary). [0] http://matsucon.net/material/dic/kao01.html http://matsucon.net/material/dic/kao01.html [1] http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/love2kaomoji/5007/ http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/love2kaomoji/5007/
- Larrikin 12y ago
  I personally find Google's offering nearly unusable as someone who primarily types Japanese via romaji. The vendors do a much better job but I found the fastest way for me was Swype. Emoji support is basically non existent though

kalleboo 12y ago

The Apple iOS and OS X Japanese keyboards suggest emoji for words along side the Kanji (your ねこ example) and that seems to be the main way the people around me enter them (I'm in Japan). It's easier to use since you don't have to go paging through 20 pages of emoji hunting for a particular one. I have yet to use Android since they added emoji support so I'm not sure what's going on there.

snogglethorpe 12y ago
Are the people around you using iphones? The iOS Japanese keyboard suggests a lot more emoji during normal input than the old pre-smart or Android Japanese phones I've used.... Anyway, the main point I'm trying to make is that the method of Japanese language input doesn't seem to adequately explain why emoji are so popular in Japan, because the support for conversion-based emoji input is haphazard even in Japan.

hrktb 12y ago

There is a separate emoji panel, but in my experience you tend to remember the name of the emoji used the most, and in 10-key mode it's pretty fast to type a 2 or 3 kana word. About the android phones, I was a bit surprised by the low quality of Japanese support. But I didn't try the ATOK keyboard nor the input available on Sony phones for instance, only the Google IME. To Apple's credit, they've been doing IME on the mac for long enough to have a very good integration of the emoji in the system dictionary. But really, my point was not only on the colourful emoji, but more on the fact that characters like ↑,♡,◎,△ are just unusable on a daily basis on a US/european computer, but are super easily summoned on a system with an IME. And Japanese people have been using these kind of pictograms in their communication for decades, the emoji used on the phones being just an advanced kind of the same thing. I think that would be the main cultural difference regarding to emoji.

snogglethorpe 12y ago
The Japanese android vendor keyboards do seem to be generally much more polished than google's effort, although the latter is ok for basic Japanese input. The main issue with conversion-based emoji seems to be discoverability.... Besides those reflecting basic concepts, there are tons of odd or intricate emoji that you'd never even imagine existed unless you saw them first; even once you know they exist, figuring out what input maps to them is at best a crap shoot (I've never found any way of getting the input system to tell you)....
- hrktb 12y ago
  About discoverability, when you start being a heavy user, the next step is to have custom entries in the user dictionary. It's almost mandatory for 2chan style smileys[0] with 7 or 8 characters in a row, and it also helps for obscure characters, emoji or not (there was a time "girl moji"[1] was a thing, with every letter splitted into 2 or 3 parts. I can't imagine that thing working without having all the letters in a user dictionary). [0] http://matsucon.net/material/dic/kao01.html http://matsucon.net/material/dic/kao01.html [1] http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/love2kaomoji/5007/ http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/love2kaomoji/5007/
Larrikin 12y ago
I personally find Google's offering nearly unusable as someone who primarily types Japanese via romaji. The vendors do a much better job but I found the fastest way for me was Swype. Emoji support is basically non existent though