Right Corner Bracket

It ends a quotation, the way a closing " does in English. In Japanese, 「…」 frames spoken lines in novels and manga, quoted speech in news, text you are told to type in manuals, and words given special attention. A quote inside a quote usually takes the doubled pair 『…』, which also marks book and film titles.

Chinese splits by region. Traditional Chinese as written in Taiwan uses 「…」 as its main quotation marks with 『…』 inside; many Hong Kong publishers do the same, though curly quotes appear there too. Mainland Chinese uses curly “…” in horizontal text and keeps corner brackets for vertical text.

The convention is older than computers: earlier Japanese fiction had its own dialogue markers, but corner brackets for dialogue took hold in modern Meiji-era print and became common after about 1887–1896.

What if someone sends just 」?

Usually a stray piece of a quotation, not a hidden message. A lone 」 often comes from copying half a quote or a slip on a Japanese keyboard, where it sits on the ] key. If the chat gives no clue, ask instead of guessing at a mood.