They even spawned last year’s (widely panned) film. Now there are more than 2,500 of them, and World Emoji Day is tomorrow. ![]() Meaning something akin to “picture” and “character” in Japanese, emoji originated in the 1990s as mobile phone culture exploded in Japan. In 2015, US President Barack Obama visited Japan and thanked the nation for giving the world such cultural gifts as karate, karaoke, anime and – yes – emoji. But a complicated process is not stopping governments and self-described “emoji activists” from rallying to get their designs into the official selection – and to get a slice of any potential geopolitical sway emoji might have. The answer is more complicated than it might seem. So if today’s world is so globalised and digital… what gives? But this goes deeper than tourist landmarks – why aren’t there more emoji that communicate the tiny, goofy minutiae of daily life that might be specific to certain cultures or countries? After all, Japan has dozens and dozens of such emoji – so many of them, that people around the world constantly misuse them. ![]() Sure, there’s a Queen’s guard □, a cricket bat □ and the requisite Union Jack □□. Say you’re British – or you’re not, but maybe traveling to the UK and texting a friend about it – why isn’t there a fish and chips emoji? Or one of Big Ben, a red phone booth, Stonehenge? ![]() Is there an emoji that represents your country?
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