How can I use / turn on Japanese emoji icons (emoticons) on my iPhone?

How can I use / turn on Japanese emoji icons (emoticons) on my iPhone?

Emoji icons can be activated for use on iPhones outside of Japan. To make it possible to type emoji icons using your iPhone keyboard follow these instructions:

1. Download Emoji Free! from the App Store on iTunes.
2. Run the app
3. Touch the Awesome, lets do it! button
4. Press the home button to quit Emoji Free
5. Navigate to Settings -> General -> Keyboards -> International Keyboards -> Japanese
6. Turn Emoji ON

Now when you're in an app that uses the keyboard you can touch the globe key to the left of the space bar. This will cycle through any international keyboards you have switched on. One of these will be a collection of emoji icons. Other iPhone users can see the icons you type in your messages!

iOS 6 Update: Emoji apps are disappearing from the App Store because iOS 6 has native support for emoji built-in. To activate emoji characters in iOS 6 follow these instructions:

1. Make sure you have iOS 6 or later installed.
2. Navigate to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> Keyboards -> Add New Keyboard -> Emoji

That's it! Now you can use emoji characters by touching the globe key to the left of the keyboard space bar.