The first emoji set — 176 12×12 pixel images — was created by one person in 1999
Some trivia is so bizarre it forces you to rethink your entire understanding of the world. Check out the fact below, see how others reacted, and scroll down to dive into the verified science and history behind it.
Shigetaka Kurita, working for Japanese mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo, designed the original 176 emoji in 1999 for a mobile internet platform. Each was a 12×12 pixel image created to convey information efficiently in the character-limited early mobile environment. The word 'emoji' is Japanese: 'e' (picture) + 'moji' (character). The original set is now part of MoMA's permanent collection in New York. Emoji became a global standard through Unicode adoption in 2010, and now over 10 billion are sent per day.
Emoji are now a global visual language used daily by billions of people in virtually every country. Finding that this entire system — which has measurably influenced written communication — was created by one person, in a week, on a tiny pixel grid, in Japan in 1999, makes it feel both less and more impressive simultaneously.
The Science Behind It
Shigetaka Kurita, working for Japanese mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo, designed the original 176 emoji in 1999 for a mobile internet platform. Each was a 12×12 pixel image created to convey information efficiently in the character-limited early mobile environment. The word 'emoji' is Japanese: 'e' (picture) + 'moji' (character). The original set is now part of MoMA's permanent collection in New York. Emoji became a global standard through Unicode adoption in 2010, and now over 10 billion are sent per day.
Why Your Brain Finds This Hard to Believe
OddlyHuman Editorial
VerifiedWritten and fact-checked by the OddlyHuman Behavioral Science Team. We verify all psychological, sociological, and historical claims against peer-reviewed journals, primary sources, and established encyclopedias to bring you accurate insights.
Read our Editorial Guidelines →“The original emoji — all 176 of them — were designed by one person (Shigetaka Kurita) in 1999, each a 12×12 pixel image. The originals are now in MoMA. Over 10 billion emoji are sent every day. 😊 #OddlyHuman”