I found this interesting article about Americans and Japanese read faces differently. To cut the article short, they explain that Japanese culture seems to read the eyes for emotional cues while American culture seems to read the mouth.
Quick comparison of emoticons:
US JP :-) ^_^ x-) >_< :-( ;_;
Interesting. I like the JP emoticons sometimes. This is my favorite: \^_^/ yay!.
Ciao!