Japan's role in progressing this type of visual language is undeniable, from the standards set for sporting pictograms in 1964, to the Japanese term 'emoji' being used to describe digital pictograms.

From Yang Liu’s East Meets West, published this month in English by Taschen. Pictogram by Yang Liu. Courtesy of Taschen.

Pictograms for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic, designed by Katsumi Masaru (image: Virtual Olympic Games Museum) Of all the instances in which graphic communication is necessary to transcend language ...

Aztec Pictograms Are the First Written Records of Earthquakes in the Americas New analysis of the 16th-century “Codex Telleriano-Remensis” reveals 12 references to the natural disasters ...

But the changes have not gone down well with designers, many of whom are annoyed at the way the signs dispense with internationally-recognised pictograms for letters.