What Is Ondosa? Handling the Enthusiasm Gap Between Oshi Friends
Ondosa 温度差 · Enthusiasm gap
You’re heading home from the same concert, and your impressions and your friend’s just don’t line up. Here is what ondosa means in oshi-katsu, why it arises, and what to check before you change how close you are.
What Ondosa Means
Ondosa (温度差, literally “temperature difference”) is a gap in passion and in how people engage, arising between people who support the same oshi or the same genre. It began as a metaphor for differences in feeling in romantic relationships, and came to be used for relationships in oshi-katsu too. No origin or first use specific to oshi-katsu has been identified.
The gap tends to show up in four layers.
OndosaSame oshi, different pace
- Passion and frequencyEvery show vs. a few a year
- MoneyCompleting sets vs. not spending
- InterpretationOne remark, two reactions
- Reaction to newsCelebrating vs. shaken
Money and interpretation cause trouble more often than passion.
| Layer of the gap | Example | Where it tends to appear |
|---|---|---|
| Passion and frequency | Someone who goes to every show (zentsu) vs. someone who’s happy with a few a year | Invitations to ensei (trips to see your oshi), ticket applications |
| Money | Someone who completes every merch set vs. someone who enjoys it without spending | Merch tables, splitting group orders |
| Interpretation | Someone who takes the same remark as “the best” vs. someone it doesn’t move | Sharing impressions, social media posts |
| Reaction to news | Someone who celebrates a dating or hiatus announcement vs. someone shaken by it | Right after news is released |
Of the four, money and interpretation cause trouble more often than passion does. A difference in passion is easy to see, while differences in attitudes toward money or in interpretation are hard to point out, so they pile up.
How It Differs From Similar Terms
- Doutan kyohi — A stance of deliberately keeping distance from fans of the same oshi. Ondosa arises naturally; this is a stance a person chooses
- Sameki (a cooling period) — A time when your own passion settles down. It’s a change in you, not in the other person
- Tan-ori — Changing whom you support. Ondosa comes before that: you still support your oshi but don’t fit with the people around you
- Gachi-zei and enjoy-zei — Categories of how people engage. Ondosa is the friction that arises when people with different ways of engaging share the same place
Examples
- “I’ve started to feel an ondosa with my oshi friend, and lately it’s a bit tiring”
- “Between the go-to-everything crowd and the casual crowd, the gap is huge”
- “We’re both doutan but our passion is so different that we can’t talk”
- “I stopped forcing myself to match and switched to solo oshi-katsu”
- “When I feel ondosa, I meet on site and part on site and keep things loose”
Why Ondosa Arises
Oshi-katsu is a hobby with an extremely wide range of involvement. In a survey of 14,000 people by Video Research, a Japanese market-research firm, 38.9 percent of people aged 15 to 69 said they have an oshi (Video Research, “The State of Oshi-Katsu in 2025”, in Japanese), and in a 2024 Video Research survey, 62.1 percent of Gen Z (ages 15 to 26) said they “have an oshi” (Video Research, in Japanese). A survey by Intage, featured in a Ministry of Finance column, also found wide variation in annual spending by genre: about ¥48,000 for domestic idols, about ¥34,000 for musicians, about ¥27,000 for K-pop and about ¥10,000 for anime and manga (Ministry of Finance column, in Japanese).
The same word, “I support them,” covers a range several times wide in both money and time. Ondosa is that range showing up directly in relationships. Neither person is wrong.
- 38.9%
- Of people aged 15 to 69 said they have an oshi
- 62.1%
- Of Gen Z (15 to 26) said they "have an oshi" in 2024
- ¥48,000
- Yearly spending on domestic idols
- ¥10,000
- Yearly spending on anime and manga
Spending by genre runs from about ¥10,000 to about ¥48,000 a year.
Source: Video Research, The State of Oshi-Katsu in 2025, and Intage (in Japanese)
How to Adjust When You Feel It
- Identify the layer of the gap — Is it passion, money or interpretation? Muddling them together leaps to the conclusion “this person doesn’t fit me”
- Lower the density of going together — Stop doing overnight or long-distance trips together and switch to meeting on site and parting on site. For many friendships, that alone is enough to ease things
- Settle money matters first — Fronting ticket costs, splitting group orders, promised merch trades: clear them up before you step back and you won’t fight about them later
- Adjust how much social media you see — With the mute function you can tidy up your view without cutting the relationship. The other person isn’t notified
- Keep the option of not forcing a match — Solo oshi-katsu isn’t running away; it’s a way of never creating a situation where you compare yourself with others
- 01Name the layerPassion, money or interpretation
- 02Thin out tripsMeet on site, part on site
- 03Settle the moneyClear fronted costs and trades
- 04Tune your feedMute; nobody is notified
- 05Keep solo as an optionSolo oshi-katsu is not running away
The goal is to change the density, not to cut the tie.
What to Check Before Ending a Friendship
Before ending things with someone you feel ondosa with, there’s one thing worth separating out. Has the other person’s passion changed, or has your own life changed? If the time and money you have shift because of work, school or family, the gap widens even if the other person stays the same. In that case the problem is your own pace, not the relationship, and cutting back on how often you meet leaves fewer regrets than pulling away.
And the gap itself isn’t something to blame. Neither the high-passion side nor the low-passion side is at fault; they’re simply different. “Why aren’t you coming?” and “Why do you go that far?” both measure the other person’s pace against your own standard.
Notes From The Oshi Lab: A Gap Is Also Proof the Market Has Grown
Ondosa tends to be discussed as a personal worry, but zoom out and it is the result of oshi-katsu widening into a hobby that doesn’t demand the same intensity from everyone. Once, fans with lower passion weren’t even counted as fans. Today, an involvement of a few thousand yen a month and a few hours a week is called oshi-katsu. The lower the bar for taking part, the wider the range of people in the same sphere, and the wider that range, the more friction there is. Ondosa is a side effect of the market growing.
From the point of view of operators and brands, this is a design challenge. Offer both a free or low-cost way in and high-priced limited experiences, and fans at each pace can be in the same place. Conversely, if the operators themselves create an atmosphere that seems to assume zentsu or completing the set, casual fans wonder “am I even allowed to call myself a fan?” and quietly leave. Peer pressure looks like it raises passion, but actually it erodes the base of fans.
For fans, the realistic conclusion is a single one. Don’t look sideways; look at your oshi. The fewer people you compare yourself with, the easier it is to protect your own pace.
Related Terms
Ota-tomo and oshi-tomo (fandom friends) / Sameki (cooling period) / Solo oshi-katsu / Yuru-oshi (casual oshi) / Oshi fatigue
FAQ
What does ondosa mean in oshi-katsu?
It's the gap in passion, time, spending and how things are received that arises between people who support the same oshi or genre. It's a metaphor from romantic relationships, borrowed for oshi-katsu.
How is ondosa different from doutan kyohi?
Ondosa is a gap that arises naturally, while doutan kyohi is a deliberate stance of keeping distance from fans of the same oshi. Left alone, ondosa can strain a friendship, but the gap itself is nobody's fault.
What should I do if I feel ondosa with an oshi friend?
Don't cut ties suddenly; the basic approach is to adjust step by step, starting with how often you go together and how often you get in touch. Just switching to meeting on site and parting on site can make things easier.
Is ondosa a sign that my own passion has cooled?
Not necessarily. The gap widens when the people around you suddenly get more fired up, too. It's easier to judge if you treat it as separate from a cooling period or from tan-ori.
What about ondosa with family or a partner?
Rather than asking them to understand, sharing how you spend your budget and time first causes less friction. They don't need to match your level of passion.
