Japanese “free of charge” button Emoji

Symbols

A Japanese kanji character '無' encased in a bright orange square. This character translates literally to 'nothing' or 'nonexistence' and is used in Japan to indicate that an item or service comes at no cost.

Usage Context

While it functions as a signal for 'free' in Japanese storefronts or websites, it is often misunderstood by non-Japanese speakers as a sign for 'nothing' or an empty state. It is frequently used in digital communication to signal that someone has no money, is feeling empty, or to clarify that a task requires no effort. It is often used alongside 🆓 to emphasize the concept of being complimentary.

History

This emoji was added to the Unicode standard in 2010 as part of the expansion of Japanese map and sign symbols. It originates from the standard set of 'instructional' icons used in Japanese mobile carrier interfaces, designed to help users navigate ticket machines and digital commerce portals.

Details

Glyph

🈚

Unicode

U+1F21A

Shortcode

:emoji_u1f21a:

HTML Entity

&#xD83C;&#xDE1A;

Specifications

Vendor Google

Category Symbols

Subcategory alphanum

Unicode Version 6.0

Emoji Version 1.0

License Apache-2.0 / OFL-1.1

Google Noto License

Emoji graphics by Google. © Google Inc. Licensed under Apache License 2.0 and SIL Open Font License 1.1 where applicable.

Noto Color Emoji graphics are copyrighted by Google Inc. and licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. Font files may also be subject to the SIL Open Font License, Version 1.1.

Apache 2.0 SIL OFL 1.1 Noto Repository