Symbols · Emoji 0.6
🈲Japanese “prohibited” Button Emoji
Generally, it means “no,” “not allowed,” or “forbidden.” People use it to reject a suggestion or express that something isn't okay.
The 🈲 emoji, often called the Japanese Prohibited Button, is a black button with a red circle.
- Unicode
- U+1F232
- Released
- 2010
- Shortcode
- :u7981:
- Skin tones
- No
01 — Meaning
What does the 🈲 Japanese “prohibited” Button emoji mean?
People search for this character under a lot of different names, and the ones we have collected number 4.
02 — Platforms
Japanese “prohibited” Button emoji on iPhone, Android, WhatsApp and X
The character you send is always U+1F232. The picture is not: it is redrawn by each system, and the designs below number 9.
See the whole set the way each system draws it — iPhone emojis, Android emojis, WhatsApp emojis and Discord emojis.
03 — Copy & codes
Japanese “prohibited” Button emoji copy and paste
Everything here is the same character in different notation — including the shortcode chat apps know it by, :u7981:.
All emoji copy and paste →In your code
Different notation, one result: whichever escape you paste, what comes out is U+1F232.
04 — How to type
How to type the 🈲 Japanese “prohibited” Button emoji
No picker to hand? The japanese “prohibited” button can be typed straight from the keyboard — the codes for that are below, one per system.
05 — Download
Japanese “prohibited” Button emoji PNG and SVG
Grab the japanese “prohibited” button as transparent PNG or SVG. Each system ships its own drawing, and the licence stays with the vendor, all 9 of them.
Emoji PNG library →
Apple
Google
Twitter / X
Facebook
Microsoft
06 — Combinations
Japanese “prohibited” Button emoji combinations
Ready-made combos built around japanese “prohibited” button for bios, captions and comments. Tap to copy.
All combinations →Want two emojis fused into one sticker instead of set side by side? Emoji Kitchen does that for every pair Google has drawn, and there are more ready-made pairs in emoji combinations and aesthetic emoji combos.
07 — In conversation
What 🈲 means from a girl or a guy
Who sent the japanese “prohibited” button and what came before it change the reading more than the emoji itself does.
08 — Apps
What 🈲 means on TikTok, WhatsApp and Discord
The character is the same everywhere, but the artwork and the reading of it change from app to app.
10 — Difference
🈲 vs 🉑 — what is the difference?
Two emojis that get mixed up constantly. They are different characters with different names.
Unicode name: Japanese “prohibited” Button
Code: U+1F232 · added 2010
Shortcode: :u7981:
Generally, it means “no,” “not allowed,” or “forbidden.”
Unicode name: Japanese “acceptable” Button
Code: U+1F251 · added 2010
Shortcode: :accept:
Basically, it means “okay” or “yes” in a really casual way.
11 — History
Where the 🈲 Japanese “prohibited” Button emoji came from
This one is older than Unicode emoji: Japanese carriers were drawing it on their handsets years before the standard existed, which it finally joined in 2010.
Same character every time — U+1F232 never changed. Only the drawing did, and only because each vendor redraws its own set. Someone on an older phone still sees the older picture.
Long before Unicode had emoji, Japanese carriers shipped their own picture sets.
🈲 existed there as
NTT DoCoMo E738.
Those codes are why it survived into the standard at all — Unicode had to keep Japanese messages readable.
Japanese “prohibited” Button was approved as U+1F232 and shipped in Emoji 0.6 (2010). Emoji 0.6 is the original 2010 batch that came over from the Japanese sets.
Every vendor keeps its own artwork, so 🈲 is redrawn by Apple, Google, Twitter / X, Facebook, OpenMoji, Samsung, Microsoft, WhatsApp, JoyPixels. The character you send never changes — only the picture does.
12 — FAQ