News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Original bulletin board thread in which ‘:-)’ was proposed by TorKlingberg on Friday September 23, 2016 @09:49AM (#12564563)
Probably Japan. ツ is a very common Japanese charterer pronounced "tsu".

As wodenokoto said there is a whole separate history of Asian smileys that are right way up, with the face in the middle and various decorations on both sides. They did have the advantage of a larger set of characters from the start.

Re:Original bulletin board thread in which ‘:-)’ was proposed by jcl on Friday September 23, 2016 @04:52PM (#12567863)
One example predating computers is "henohenomoheji", a face made out of Japanese hiragana, used as a generic face in children's art and crafts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henohenomoheji