In Japan, we usually use emoticons called "kaomoji", literally "face mark", which can be understood without turning one's head to the left in the e-mail or web discussion forum. It's so much different from western style.
There is a bigger variety of characters that can be used in emoticons.
For example, (^_^) this is very basic style, so we usually don't use this type of things. Japanese usually tend to use much more complex ones. I'm not sure these can be displayed collectly. But it's something like this.
「 今日ディズニーランドに行きました。（V＾－°）イエイ！ とっても楽しかったです。（*’-’*） エヘヘ。また、行きたいです。v(￣∇￣)v 」
It means " Today I went to Disneyland. :) Yay! It was very much amused. :) haha...I want to visit there again. :-P "
It is often meant to use for making the person look cuter. especially for woman. Of course Japanese young woman always use these item. But it's also usually used by senior woman. It's kinda weird though...
Well, Isn't it interesting? You can check these variety of Japanese emoticons at this site.
http://www.kaomoji.com/kao/text/yorokobu.htm
