Japanese “secret” button

It is 秘, the kanji for “secret”, drawn as an office stamp. Kanji are the Chinese-derived characters of written Japanese. In Japan a circled 秘 is read maru-hi (“circle hi”) and is a familiar shorthand marking on confidential papers in offices, the way CONFIDENTIAL is stamped across a file in English; formal government classifications use written labels instead. Chinese readers recognise the same character as “secret”, and Korean readers may know it from the Hanja (Chinese characters used in Korean) behind 비밀, “secret”, though everyday Korean is written in Hangul. Elsewhere it is just a red badge with a foreign character in it.

It turns up in entertainment too. Japanese TV listings and show titles use a 秘 mark to tease gossip, tricks and behind-the-scenes facts (㊙情報, “secret info”) and promise the viewer something juicy. The character itself was already in Unicode; when the Japanese mobile carriers’ emoji were added, it became the emoji for their secret sign, alongside its sibling ㊗️ (circled 祝, “congratulations”) and the squared Japanese signs such as 🈲.

What does it mean when someone sends ㊙️?

“Keep this between us”, or a jokey “top secret”. Senders drop it before a surprise, a spoiler, a plan that is not public yet, or a bit of gossip. A Japanese sender may also mean it the TV way: here is a juicy tip or insider fact worth your attention, a teaser more than a gag order.

Many readers outside East Asia can’t read the character, so the emoji usually travels with words; the words around it carry the meaning, and the symbol adds a wink. It is not a privacy request to rely on in either direction. If something must stay confidential, say so in plain words.

If it appears as a plain black outline rather than a coloured badge, that is the text form ㊙ of the same character. The meaning does not change.