3 Facts for World Emoji Day 1. Shigetaka Kurita is viewed as the 'Father of Emoji.' The Japanese designer created the first emojis in 1999 for a program where users were limited to 250 characters in an email. Kurita, to 'The Guardian,' 2016 2. The most popular emojis vary from country to country. In the U.S., Canada and the U.K., the "despairing crying face" is most used. 3. The father of emoticons dislikes emojis. Remember when you had to type this, :) , instead of an emoji? Carnegie Mellon science professor, Scott Fahlman, created this version of digital emotion on a 1982 message board. However, he dislikes emojis. Fahlman, to the 'Independent,' 2012