Latest news with #ShigetakaKurita
Japan Times
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
NTT Docomo to retire iconic emoji set after 26 years
NTT Docomo will phase out its proprietary set of emoji — known as Docomo Emoji — starting with smartphones released in late June, according to an announcement from the telecom giant, ending a 26-year run that helped shape the visual language of mobile communication. Beginning next month, newly released Android smartphones and feature phones sold by Docomo will no longer include the carrier's original emoji. Samsung's Galaxy series will follow suit starting with devices launching in July or later. Galaxy phones will instead use Samsung's own emoji designs, while other Android and Docomo-branded feature phones will adopt Google's Noto Color Emoji set. The transition won't be limited to new models. From October, some existing Galaxy devices will receive software updates that remove Docomo's emoji from the system. Docomo Emoji debuted in 1999 with the company's i-mode mobile internet service, offering a novel way for users to express emotion and nuance via electronic mail. The word emoji itself comes from the combination of the Japanese words for picture, e, and letter, moji. At a time when screen space and bandwidth were scarce, the emoji — simple 12 x 12 pixel designs depicting facial expressions and everyday objects — enabled more fluid, visual communication. Development constraints meant that the project lacked professional design staff. Instead, it was overseen by Shigetaka Kurita, who at the time was a planner for i-mode and supervised the emoji's creation in-house. The symbols quickly became a touchstone for Japanese mobile users and eventually laid the foundation for today's global emoji ecosystem. Apple's first emoji keyboard appeared on iOS 2.2 in November 2008. It was initially restricted to iPhone users in Japan, but expanded to outside users in 2011 with iOS 5.0, and eventually became enabled by default. Emoji is compatible with the Unicode standard, meaning a character sent from one device's set can be displayed in another. In 2016, the Museum of Modern Art in New York added Docomo's original 176 emoji set to its permanent collection, cementing their cultural legacy. While Docomo's emoji remain beloved by some, their prominence has faded amid the rise of more expressive tools like LINE stickers and social media platforms that support richer visuals. As digital communication has evolved, the original Docomo Emoji set has played a less central role in mobile interaction. Responding to a user on X who asked how he felt about the emoji's retirement, Kurita expressed no regret. 'Honestly, I don't feel sad. Docomo Emoji have fulfilled their role, and the fact that they're preserved in a museum as part of history gives me a sense of closure,' he wrote on Wednesday. 'More than anything, I just feel grateful. I want to say thank you to everyone who used them for so many years." He added: 'One could say they've more than fulfilled their purpose. If anything, their retirement feels long overdue. A heartfelt thank you for the many years of service.'
New York Times
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
10 Japanese Innovations That Shape Our Daily Lives
Asian Pop 'J-pop' is an umbrella term encompassing a range of subgenres blending elements of Western and traditional Japanese music across various decades, but often it refers to the catchy, upbeat music that emerged in Japan in the late 1980s. This music soon made its way to other countries, including Korea, where it proved sonically influential and provided a model for the idol system, which relies on professionally trained groups of all-around entertainers. So while it's K-pop that has more fully broken through on a global scale, J-pop helped pave the way. The country that changed modern culture and design, from A to Z Emojis Reflective of a national interest in both electronics and kawaii, or cuteness, some of the first emojis were the work of the designer Shigetaka Kurita and were released on Japanese cellphones and pagers in 1999. Kurita's set of 176 pixelated icons was acquired by New York's Museum of Modern Art in 2016, by which point the software standards nonprofit known as the Unicode Consortium had agreed to make emojis recognizable across operating systems and Apple had added a keyboard for them to its mobile devices. Today, billions of emojis are sent daily around the world. Instant Noodles Momofuku Ando, the founder of Nissin Foods, invented instant noodles — which are flash fried and then dried — in his backyard shed in Ikeda in 1958. (He used a watering can to sprinkle them with chicken soup.) Starting in 1970, when Nissin began operating in California, they became a satisfying, inexpensive staple in the United States and beyond. Nissin maintains plants in countries ranging from Vietnam to Mexico to Hungary, with flavors varying slightly according to local tastes, and now has many competitors. Hence one of Ando's catchphrases: 'Mankind is noodlekind.' Karaoke The first karaoke-style machine, the coin-operated Sparko Box, debuted in Japan in 1967; by the mid-80s, karaoke venues were ubiquitous there and were beginning to change nightlife abroad too. The erstwhile Los Angeles establishment Dimples, which opened in 1982 — with a single stage, as opposed to the private singing rooms that were standard in much of Asia — is thought to have been the first of thousands of American karaoke bars. Canada, Finland and Britain were also enthusiastic adopters. Evidently, Japan's salarymen weren't the only ones willing to set self-consciousness aside for the brief chance to feel like a star. Explore More Read the editor's letter here. Take a closer look at the covers. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
