Do Japanese people see ツ as a smiling face? Tsu () kana) is sometimes used on the internet as a smiling face, such as in the emoticon ¯\\_()_/¯. I'm wondering if Japanese people notice it or is just another character for them? The reason I'm asking is that my native language is Arabic, and it has the letter Ta' (ت) that some people think looks like a wide grinning face, but I'm simply unable to see it. It's just a letter to me. Do Japanese people see the same way?

I read your question "Do Japanese people see [tsu] as a smiling face" and read over the question several times before I got it. And I'm not a native Japanese reader (or speaker).

Just like your ت (which sort of looks like a smiling face to me) and the German ü (to Japanese eyes, say), the Japanese doesn't look like a smiling face to any eye who has become used to reading it as a letter.

So I think if you ask a Japanese native reader whether looks like a smiling face, I would say the answer will invariably be … "Now that you say so...". In other words "No!"