Kakin, Mitsugu, Ofuse and Omukae: Oshi-Katsu Money Slang Explained

A friend bought some merch for their oshi and announced they had “welcomed” it home, and somehow the word felt exactly right. How do fans choose between kakin, mitsugu, ofuse and omukae? Here are the origins and nuances of each word, and a few cautions on using them.

What Kakin, Mitsugu, Ofuse and Omukae Mean

Where the Words Come From and How They Spread

The newest layer is kakin. It originally belonged to the side that charges a fee, but through online and smartphone game culture it flipped to mean “I pay,” and from there it spread beyond gacha to other spending: tickets, merch, livestream gifts. Ofuse and omukae, on the other hand, are metaphors borrowed from religion and everyday speech. Shifting an existing word slightly takes the rawness out of spending. Instead of inventing new words, fans change the angle of the words they already have, and that is how this part of the vocabulary gets made.

A Rough Guide to Telling Them Apart

• Kakin began as game slang, but now covers everything from merch purchases to ticket fees. It implies nothing about the size of the amount, which makes it the most neutral of the group
• Mitsugu is a self-deprecating joke when you say it about yourself, but it can sound critical when aimed at someone else, so treat it with care
• Omukae is mostly used for items with a physical form, such as plushies and figures, and rarely for tickets or streams. Even the choice of word carries the feel of the fandom
• When people talk about the scale of spending itself, they use a different vocabulary, such as light, heavy and extreme spenders. Slang expresses feelings; the tier words express quantity.

Examples

• “Used up my budget on discs and tickets this month. I’ll behave next month.”
• “I welcomed a new plushie today. From now on, it’s part of the family.”
• “Made my ofuse to the limited gacha. No regrets.”
• “The fact that ‘is that kakin or omukae?’ is a totally normal question tells you it’s oshi-katsu.”
• “After agonizing over one copy of my oshi’s photobook, a keepsake copy or a copy to spread the word, I bought just one. I keep telling myself it’s a normal purchase, not ofuse.”

Why Fans Say “Welcome” Instead of “Buy”

What’s interesting is that none of these words call spending “consumption.”

• “Buy” becomes “omukae” (a new member joins the family)
• “Pay” becomes “ofuse” (an act of faith)
• “Waste” becomes “kakin” or “mitsugu” (self-deprecation as a cushion)

Every rewording loads the spending with meaning. Spending for meaning rather than price is the essence of oshi consumption. The flip side is that this vocabulary is not a tool for reading a bigger amount as stronger support. Fans who call themselves free-to-play players and fans who declare a gacha ban are each expressing their own distance from their oshi within the same vocabulary.

A Few Cautions on Using These Words

This is in-group humor, so it depends on the temperature of the room. Laughing at your own spending is fine, but judging other people’s spending with these words is not. “Are you sure you’re okay, giving that much?” can sound too intrusive, even when meant as a joke. Money is a topic where distance matters, even among fans.

Three Rules for Enjoying It Calmly

Humor or not, money is still money.

1. Set a monthly cap on a calm day — Enjoy it within the budget from your oshi-katsu savings
2. Keep the “bankruptcy line” a joke — If you actually start cutting into daily life, that is the financial version of oshi-katsu fatigue and a sign to slow down
3. Don’t feel guilty about zero-spend stretches — A survey found that more than 70% spend under ¥10,000 a month, so small or zero spending is the majority experience (the source is collected in our piece on the oshi-katsu market size)

Keeping a record of amounts makes all three much easier. Separating categories, as in an oshi-katsu household ledger, lets you look back on a month as “the month I put a lot into this” instead of “the month I overspent.” This article explains vocabulary; it is not professional advice on household finances. If you feel spending is affecting your life, remember that you can turn early to a public support service.

Notes From The Oshi Lab: Spending as an “Investment in the Relationship”

The words omukae and ofuse show that fans treat spending as an investment in a relationship. A company that misses this and designs everything in the vocabulary of “revenue per customer” will hit friction sooner or later. A fan’s wallet scores spending less by how much than by whether it felt good to spend. Money slang is the dictionary of that scoring.

Companies should also be careful about using this slang as-is in marketing. Ofuse and mitsugu work because fans say them about themselves, as a way of covering embarrassment. When the seller says them, they turn into a blatant request for money. Fan vocabulary is for understanding, not for exploiting, and that line decides the distance between a company and its fans. Designing around the idea that only big spenders are “devoted fans” falls into the same trap. How much someone spends and how deeply they are involved are separate axes, and the more a campaign treats them as one, the more people quietly drift away.

Related Terms

Super chat / Light, heavy and extreme spenders / Tsumu (letting purchases pile up) / Oshi-katsu savings / Musen (zero-spend)