Emoji Representation From Japan’s Generation X, Y, And Z Perspectives

Abstract

Japanese people often use emoji in their daily activities, especially in digital communications such as chatting or posting on social media. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to find out what kind of emojis that Japanese people of generation X, Y, and Z tend to use in their communication. This research uses library and qualitative method. Authors also conduct a survey on 60 random Japanese people. It is hoped that this research allows us to know the representation of emoji that is used between different generations in Japan. The research shows that emoji used in communication may serve as a medium to maintain harmony between generations to communicate in this digital era. Plenty of Japanese people, especially within families and friends use emoji to emphasize expressions in a sentence as well as making them more friendly. Moreover, another result of why Japanese people use emoji in smartphones is because of its practicality.

Emoji

There are plenty of ways that people communicate with text. One may use “…” that refers to low intonation, “!” to emphasize a message, “?” is used to as a question, and one may also use a bold text to mark importance. As time went by, emoji was born as a feature to help in written communication [3]. Therefore, the authors would like to know the representation of emoji for Japanese people from generation to generation (from generation X, Y, to Z)

Emoji or emoticon was developed by Shigetaka Kurita during his employment in NTT DoCoMo. The word emoji itself does not derive from emotion and letter, the root of its words consist of Kanji e (picture) and moji (word) [4]. Therefore, emoji itself means a text that produces pictures. Emoji then becomes emoticon, that derives from the emoji and icon; which then becomes kaomoji/emoticon that tends to be an image of expression (happy, shocked, sad, etc). Besides kaomoji, emoji also evolves – due to the advancement of technology – as stickers/stamps. After that, it again evolves to GIF, which is currently popular in digital communication.

The Growth of Emoji in Japan

The development of emoji rapidly increased since the invention of smartphones [1]. Back then during the era of feature phones, emoji is not used that often because it is not compatible if it is used on phones with different brands. Emoji was yet to be popular when iPhone first came to Japan in 2008. The Japanese people did not prefer iPhone back then due to its inavailability in using emoji until iPhone created the emoji keyboard feature. Despite the update, the Japanese felt that emoji in iPhone was not cute/kawaii enough for them. They felt that emoji in iPhone was more similar to iconography and warning labels compared to mascots and kyaras.

The Japanese people are different compared to the US that they prefer designs of emoji that look like kyaras such as Pikachu, Hello Kitty, etc. This preference was then taken as an opportunity with the creation of LINE application. LINE is a popular communication tool in Japan that provides stickers as a feature of chat decoration. With LINE stickers, different shapes of emoji in different gadgets are then blended into one image even if it is used in different gadgets. Beside stickers/stamps, LINE features also provide emoticons that show more expressions such as happy, sad, disappointed, etc.

The Use of Emoji in Japan

In 2013, as much as 74% of Americans used stickers or emoji in messaging applications. Compared to the US, popular emoji in Japan is ｷﾀ━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━!! (pronounced kitaaa, meaning “all right!” or “here we go!” –commonly used in Twitter and chat rooms. According to Wong (2015), different culture uses different emoji. Americans tend to use emoji in order to direct a topic in a conversation while Japanese people tend to use emoji merely as a decoration. In web blogs in Japan, plenty of emoji are used by both a blogger and people in the comment section. It serves as a tool to play around with language, culture, kawaii/cuteness, as well as to be polite. Japanese people feel that it is polite when using emoji during texting/chatting. The reason for this is to prevent miscommunication during chatting/texting. Therefore, emoji also serves as a represention of face to face communication between a writer and his/her reader. In a study in North America and East Asia, people in East Asia tend to use more emoji than people in the North America.

Generation X in Japan (1965-1980)

Ther are classification of people in five categories of generations based on their birth year, such as Baby Boomer Generation (1946-1964), Generation X (1965-1980), Generation Y or Millenial Generation (1981-1994), Generation Z (1995-2010), and Alpha Generation (2011-2025) [2]. All of the five generations have their own characteristics based on their birth year, environment, etc. Even the Japanese people are also categorized based on the birth year. Generation X in Japan tends to live in the era of bubble economy. They like to create idols, anime, and manga that tasted glory in 1961-1970. This generation also consists of people whose lives were filled with things such as TV, video game, cassettes, phone, making them aware of the development of electronics. The Generation X in Japan also tends to understand the importance of competition and competitive elements. Due to their highly competitive nature, this also becomes the reason to a high number of suicides in Japan.

Generation Y in Japan (1981-1994)

Similar to the Generation X, the Generation Y is still closely connected to the habit of the people before them. The people of Generation Y know their technology thanks to their parents, making them familiar with phones and even cellphones. Moreover, the Generation Y is known to massively use technology such as phones and cellphones. However, since this generation is usually the offsprings of the Generation X that experienced bubble economy in Japan, then the Generation Y learned to be careful with their money, less consumptive and less ambitious. Nonetheless, the Generation Y easily adapts and experiences education that improves their talent and creativity.

Generation Z in Japan (1995-2010)

Japan and other countries also have the same characteristics for this generation. Generation Z is the generation of future inventors with all the dreams and technology. [5] The needs of Generation Z are more than just food, shelter, and clothing. This generation is the generation that requires internet. Generation Z is easy in accessing high speed internet using their smartphones. They can access anything anywhere. Though it is easy for them to access internet, they are not that interested or challenged with the use of apps or games. Other characteristics of Generation Z is that they are highly ambitious, confident, as well as having the desire to be acknowledged by others and the fondness of instant success. The people of Generation Y (Millenial Generation) believe that people in Generation Z need to improve their soft skill as well as technical skills and special expertise –to show their expectation on how the future will be shaped, due to the tendency of Generation Z in underestimating everything.

Research Method

This research uses a survey given randomly to 85 Japanese people. After gaining the result of the survey, the data is then divided to three generations (Gen X, Y, and Z). There are three expected results from the survey. First, to find out what kind of environment is an emoji is used, as well as to find out who sends and receives emoji. Second, the frequency of using the emoji. Third, the reason on why an emoji is used. After knowing the three results, there will be a clear picture of the use of emoji and the reason of why emoji is used by every generation.

Result and Discussions – The Environment of Using an Emoji

The result of the survey to 85 random Japanese people shows that:

• Generation School and Campus% Work Environment% Others (families, etc. ) % Public place (friends, shops, etc. ) % Grand Total (%)
• Generation X 0,0 27,3 90,9 9,1 100,0
• Generation Y 15,4 7,7 69,2 15,4 100,0
• Generation Z 67,2 4,9 24,6 19,7 100,0
• Average total % 27,5 13,3 61,6 14,7 100,0

The survey shows that people in Gen X are consisting of age 39 to 54, tend to have their own families, do not use emoji at campus and school. Although they are professional workers, they do not use emoji in work environment and public places. Instead, they use emoji mostly in informal situation such as when interacting with their families and friends (90. 9).

Similar to Gen X, people in Gen Y that are currently aged 25 to 38 years old in which the majority have professional occupation are not different than Gen X. They tend to use emoji in informal situation, especially with their families and friends (69. 2%). The difference is quite clear that Gen Y uses emoji with a bit more flexibility compared to Gen X. Gen Y rarely uses emoji in school and public places while it is also almost never used in work environment.

For people in Gen Z, that are currently aged 9 to 25 years old that have just started to enter work environment, with many of them still at school tend to use emoji at campus and school. What is interesting is that compared to Gen X and Y, this generation rarely uses emoji with their families. The similarity between Gen X, Y, and Z, emoji is that emoji is still rarely used in work environment.

While the above result shows the environment of using an emoji, the next graph shows who sends and receives emoji.

The three graphs of emoji users show a pattern that the three generations tend to use emoji with their friends, and more hesitant in using emoji to their subordinates/superiors (work environment) and teacher/student (school/campus). In other words, Gen X, Y, and Z still feel that emoji is still an informal communication tool that is not suitable to be used in formal situation such as when speaking to one’s boss/superior at the office.

Another result shows the reason of using emoji:

1. emphasize emotion and expression (77. 3%).
2. be friendly (68. 2%).
3. prevent miscommunication or misunderstanding in written communication (23. 9%).
4. be polite (15. 9%).

Conclusions

Japanese people tend to consider emoji as a tool to communicate in this digital era. It is frequently used to communicate among themselves (78. 4%). For Generation X, Y, and Z, there are no significant findings except in the use of emoji, that Gen Z tends to be more flexible in using emoji and less worried in the formal/informal context in written communication. This shows that emoji gives an impression that a person using an emoji is more friendly while emphasizing an expression in a sentence.

References

1. J. Blagdon, “How emoji conquered the world,” The Verge, 04-Mar-2013. [Online]. Available: https://www. theverge. com/2013/3/4/3966140/how-emoji-conquered-the-world. [Accessed: 07-Jul-2019].
2. Kristie, W, “A Quick Guide to Japan's Generation Timeline,” freshtrax by btrax, 16-Apr-2019. [Online]. Available: https://blog. btrax. com/gen-x-millennials-a-quick-guide-to-japans-generation-cohorts/. [Accessed: 07-Jul-2019].
3. Kubota, H and Shun, I 2010 The Use of Emoji Symbols in Mobile Messages: Emoji Makes Text “Spoken Messages” Kobe: The 27th Annual Meeting of The Japanese Cognitive Science Society p 3
4. Le Blanc and Masami, M, “Japan would like to remind you that ‘emoji’ has nothing to do with ‘emotion,’” SoraNews24, 24-Jun-2017. [Online]. Available: https://soranews24. com/2017/06/25/japan-would-like-to-remind-you-that-emoji-has-nothing-to-do-with-emotion/. [Accessed: 07-Jul-2019].
5. Nakazawa, K 2018 Jisedai o Ninau 「Mireniaru Sedai」「Jenereeshon Z」Beikoku ni okeru sedai (Generations) ni Tsuite New York: Jetro p 2