TOKYO: Nearly 60 percent of Japanese mothers enjoy hobby activities to support their favorite celebrities or characters, a recent survey by Interspace Co., which runs an information website for mothers, showed.

The online survey found that 58.3 percent of responding mothers enjoy the “oshikatsu” activities to support favorites such as pop idols, actors, anime characters, athletes, and sports teams.

Most of them, or 68.5 percent of the total, spend less than 50,000 yen a year on the activities. Those who spend 50,000 yen or more and less than 300,000 yen accounted for 20.7 percent.

The share of those who spend 300,000 yen or more and less than 1 million yen stood at 5.7 percent , and 5.1 percent spend 1 million yen or more.

Interspace conducted the survey in April and analyzed answers from 792 mothers.

“Oshikatsu seems to allow mothers who are busy with child care and might be alienated from society to spend time for themselves and relieve stress,” an Interspace official said.

“If new communities are created among these mothers through exchanges on social media, relationships between fans may become stronger,” the official said.

JIJI Press