A person dressed as a ninja, a covert agent or warrior associated with feudal Japan. Typically depicted with a black hood, a mask covering the lower half of their face, and the hilt of a knife or sword emerging from behind their shoulder.

May be used to describe something skillful, stealthy, or secretive, including thieves, spies, assassins, or someone acting covertly.

This emoji is also considered racist in some contexts, particularly when used to disparage, insult, or abuse people with dark skin, especially Black people. It has also been used by some Black users, particularly Black men, as an in-group reference to themselves or their peers.

The now-discontinued Microsoft ZWJ sequence 🐱‍👤 Ninja Cat did not include the ninja emoji, having been developed several years before Ninja was approved. Instead, it combined 🐱 Cat Face and 👤 Bust in Silhouette, and was available only on Microsoft platforms before the debut of the Fluent emoji set in November 2021.

Microsoft's design previously had two swords on their back.

Ninja was approved as part of Unicode 13.0 in 2020 and added to Emoji 13.0 in 2020.