If you spend enough time around Japanese anime, idol, manga, game, or VTuber fans, you’ll eventually hear the word “oshi.”

You might see someone carrying a bag covered in dozens of badges of the same character. You might notice a plushie carefully placed beside a dessert at a café. Or you might see an entire birthday display decorated in one character’s image color.

Welcome to the world of oshi-katsu.

For many fans in Japan, supporting a favorite character, artist, idol, actor, creator, or personality is not simply about buying merchandise. It can become a hobby, a way to connect with other fans, and sometimes even a creative form of self-expression.

So what exactly does oshi-katsu mean?

What Does “Oshi” Mean?

The Japanese word 推し (oshi) comes from the verb osu, meaning roughly “to recommend” or “to support.”

In modern fan culture, your oshi is the person or character you especially support or love.

Your oshi might be:

• An anime or manga character
• A game character
• An idol
• A VTuber
• An actor or voice actor
• A musician
• A sports player
• A member of a fictional group
• Even a particular pairing or relationship between characters

You can have one oshi, several oshis, or different oshis depending on the series.

There are no strict rules.

What Does “Oshi-katsu” Mean?

推し活 (oshi-katsu) combines oshi with katsu, short for 活動 (katsudō), meaning “activity.”

In simple terms, oshi-katsu means doing activities related to supporting and enjoying your favorite.

And those activities can take many different forms.

Some fans spend very little money and simply enjoy watching their favorite character or talking about them online. Others collect rare merchandise, travel to events, decorate entire rooms, or carefully coordinate outfits in their oshi’s image color.

That variety is part of what makes oshi-katsu fun.

1. Collecting Oshi Merchandise

Probably the most visible form of oshi-katsu is collecting merchandise.

Popular items include:

• Acrylic stands
• Can badges
• Keychains
• Plushies
• Bromides and photo cards
• Clear files
• Trading cards
• Figures
• Character goods
• Doujinshi
• Event-exclusive merchandise

Japanese fandom also has a huge culture around random or blind-box merchandise.

That means you may buy one item without knowing which character is inside.

For fans trying to collect only their oshi, trading with other fans becomes part of the experience.

And when an item is limited to a pop-up store, event, collaboration café, lottery, or short preorder period, finding it later can become a serious treasure hunt.

2. Making an Itabag

One of the most recognizable symbols of oshi-katsu is the 痛バッグ (itabag).

An itabag is a bag decorated with merchandise dedicated to your favorite character or idol.

Fans often fill the transparent section of the bag with:

• Matching can badges
• Acrylic keychains
• Character cards
• Ribbons
• Flowers
• Decorative chains
• Items in the character’s image color

Some itabags contain dozens—or even hundreds—of identical badges.

Others are carefully designed more like miniature exhibitions.

There isn’t one “correct” way to make an itabag. Some fans prefer perfect symmetry, while others mix different types of merchandise.

We’ll cover this in much more detail in our upcoming guide:

How to Make an Itabag: A Beginner’s Guide to Japanese Oshi Culture

3. Nui-katsu: Taking Your Plushie Everywhere

Another popular part of oshi-katsu is ぬい活 (nui-katsu).

“Nui” comes from nuigurumi, meaning plush toy.

Fans carry small plush versions of their favorite characters and take photos of them during everyday life or travel.

You might see a plushie:

• Sitting beside a latte
• Looking at Tokyo Tower
• Visiting an anime pilgrimage location
• Sitting at a collaboration café
• Traveling overseas
• Celebrating a birthday

There are even miniature clothes, bags, furniture, food, and accessories made specifically for plushies.

For many fans, nui-katsu turns an ordinary day out into a small adventure with their oshi.

4. Visiting Collaboration Cafés

Japan frequently hosts anime collaboration cafés, where restaurants or cafés temporarily transform around a particular series, game, idol group, or character.

A collaboration café may offer:

• Character-inspired food
• Drinks based on image colors
• Limited merchandise
• Exclusive coasters
• Special interior decorations
• Character panels and displays
• Photo spots

Some cafés require advance reservations, and popular collaborations may sell out quickly.

The limited coaster you receive with your drink can sometimes become just as desirable as the meal itself.

We’ll explore this culture separately in:

What Is a Collaboration Cafe? Japan’s Anime Cafe Culture Explained

5. Going to Events and Pop-Up Stores

Oshi-katsu often goes beyond online fandom.

Japan hosts an enormous number of temporary events, including:

• Anime exhibitions
• Pop-up stores
• Character birthdays
• Stage events
• Concerts
• Doujin events
• Comiket
• Collaboration shops
• Limited-time exhibitions

Fans may travel across Japan just to attend an event connected to their oshi.

Limited goods are often a major attraction.

And because some products are only available at the venue, during a short event period, or while supplies last, international fans can find them especially difficult to obtain.

6. Celebrating Your Oshi’s Birthday

Yes—fictional characters get birthday parties too.

Character birthdays can be a major event in Japanese fan culture.

Fans sometimes prepare elaborate displays featuring:

• Acrylic stands
• Plushies
• Badges
• Cakes
• Flowers
• Balloons
• Character colors
• Printed photos
• Messages

These displays are often photographed and shared online.

Some cafés and hotels even offer special rooms or plans that fans use for birthday celebrations.

For the fan, it is less about pretending the character is real and more about celebrating something that has brought them happiness.

7. Wearing Your Oshi’s Color

Many characters and idols have an associated image color.

A fan might subtly incorporate that color into:

• Clothing
• Nails
• Jewelry
• Bags
• Phone accessories
• Makeup
• Light sticks
• Room decorations

This can be a discreet way of participating in oshi-katsu without wearing obvious character merchandise.

Someone walking through Tokyo in a carefully coordinated purple outfit may have a very specific reason for choosing purple that day.

8. Collecting Goods for a Favorite Pairing

Oshi-katsu is not always centered around a single character.

Some fans especially enjoy a particular pairing, often called a coupling in Japanese fandom.

They may collect merchandise featuring both characters, search for doujinshi about the pairing, or arrange displays where the two characters appear together.

Finding goods for a specific pairing can be more difficult than searching for one character—especially when the pairing has several possible Japanese abbreviations or fandom names.

This is one area where knowing Japanese fan terminology can make searching much easier.

We’ll explore it in a separate guide:

How Japanese Fans Collect Goods for Their Favorite Pairings

Is Oshi-katsu Expensive?

It can be—but it doesn’t have to be.

One fan might spend almost nothing.

Another might collect hundreds of badges, attend every event, travel around Japan, and preorder multiple limited editions.

The important point is that oshi-katsu is supposed to be enjoyable.

Japanese fans sometimes even set an “oshi-katsu budget” to keep collecting manageable.

You don’t need the largest collection to be a “real” fan.

One treasured acrylic stand can mean just as much as an entire wall of merchandise.

Oshi-katsu From Outside Japan

For overseas fans, oshi-katsu can be more complicated.

You may discover the perfect item only to find:

• The shop doesn’t ship overseas
• The item is event-exclusive
• The preorder has already closed
• The website is only in Japanese
• The item is secondhand
• The seller requires a Japanese address
• The character name is written differently in Japanese
• You simply don’t know where to search

That is exactly why TOMODACHI exists.

We want overseas fans to enjoy Japanese otaku culture without needing to understand every Japanese shop, event rule, marketplace, or search term.

Tell Us Your Oshi

Have an oshi but don’t know what merchandise is available in Japan?

Just tell us their name.

TOMODACHI can help search Japanese stores, events, and secondhand markets for merchandise related to your favorite character, series, artist, or pairing.

You don’t need to know the shop.
You don’t need to know the Japanese product name.
You don’t even need to know exactly what you want yet.

Tell us your oshi, and we’ll start from there.

→ Start Your Request