In-House Oshi-Katsu: Using Fan Culture to Build Employee Engagement

“Do our employees actually oshi our company?”

As more companies struggle with employee engagement, an idea that applies the structure of oshi-katsu to building organizations is starting to draw attention: in-house oshi-katsu (shanai oshi-katsu). The topic drew a big response on our podcast, The Oshi Lab (in Japanese), so we’ve organized it into an article here.

The data backs up this trend. In Tanita’s “2026 Survey on Attitudes and Realities of Oshi-Katsu” (in Japanese), about 60 percent of respondents said that an “oshi-katsu allowance” or “oshi-katsu leave” at their workplace would raise their motivation for work. Oshi-katsu and the will to work are no longer unrelated.

~60%

Said an oshi-katsu allowance or leave would raise their motivation for work

From a survey by Tanita, the Japanese maker of health measurement devices.

Source: Tanita, 2026 Survey on Attitudes and Realities of Oshi-Katsu (in Japanese)

What Is In-House Oshi-Katsu?

In-house oshi-katsu is an effort to bring the behavior of oshi-katsu into an organization and create a state in which employees can “oshi” their company, teammates and products.

Oshi-katsu already contains the ideal form of engagement.

• People cheer on their own, without anyone telling them to
• They describe the appeal in their own words to those around them (fukyo, spreading the word)
• They celebrate results and milestones together (seitansai birthday celebrations and anniversaries)
• They connect with people who share the same oshi (doutan)

“Wanting to talk about it without being asked” and “wanting to spread the word on your own”: a state that marketing and HR alike would give anything for happens naturally in oshi-katsu every day. In-house oshi-katsu starts from the idea of learning from that structure.

In-house oshi-katsuLet employees oshi their company

• Cheer unpromptedNobody tells them to
• Spread the wordFukyo, in their own words
• Celebrate togetherBirthdays and anniversaries
• ConnectWith people who share the same oshi

Every habit happens naturally in fandom, every day.

Why It Works as an Engagement Effort

1. “Oshi” Can’t Be Ordered, Which Is Why It’s Strong

Numerical targets on an engagement survey or training in the company philosophy don’t produce “liking.” The structure of oshi-katsu teaches that people can only oshi an appeal they discovered themselves. In-house oshi-katsu efforts stick to preparing the materials and places to oshi, rather than “making people oshi.”

2. Fukyo Changes Hiring and Sales

The words of an employee who supports the company are stronger than a job ad or a sales deck. What lies behind referral hiring (recruiting through employees’ own contacts) and word of mouth is employees’ fukyo.

3. A “Culture of Celebration” Builds Psychological Safety

Oshi-katsu is a culture of celebrating. Fans celebrate a debut day and give thanks for small “supplies.” Translated to an organization, that becomes a culture of celebrating achievements big and small and putting thanks into words.

Small Steps You Can Try Tomorrow

The key is don’t force it, don’t over-quantify it, and don’t do what isn’t fun. As we wrote in our column on oshi-katsu fatigue, fatigue begins the moment oshi-katsu becomes an obligation, and the same is true in an organization.

Three Steps to Get Started

In-house oshi-katsu is a topic where starting from program design tends to fail. There is an order for starting small.

1. Observe: Look for the “oshi behavior” that already exists in your company. Someone who naturally praises coworkers’ work, someone who can’t stop talking once the conversation turns to your product. The starting point is not creating passion from zero but finding the passion that’s already there
2. Try just one: Choose one from the table above and start small, with volunteers only. Rolling it out company-wide can wait until it’s working
3. Look back and ask “is it continuing?”: Skip participation rates and scores; the best criterion is whether it continues without being forced. Quietly close efforts that didn’t last, and try the next one

1. 01ObserveFind the oshi behavior already there
2. 02Try just oneVolunteers only, small
3. 03Look backIs it continuing without force?

Start from the passion that already exists, not from program design.

Common Failures and Tips to Avoid Them

Fails

Making people oshi

• Mandatory events and posting quotas
• Thank-you card counts as a goal
• Recognition that works like a ranking

Works

Preparing what there is to oshi

• Work to be proud of, appealing colleagues
• Volunteers who want to write cards
• Celebrating small milestones above all

The company prepares the materials and the place. Employees decide whether to oshi.

A Caution: Efforts That “Make People Oshi” Always Fail

The greatest taboo of in-house oshi-katsu is trying to build engagement through mandatory events or posts turned into quotas. The passion of oshi-katsu comes from voluntariness. What a company can do stops at preparing what there is to oshi: work to be proud of, appealing colleagues, a story that makes people want to cheer.

Notes From The Oshi Lab: A Foundation for Brand Building

At the Lab, we see in-house oshi-katsu as an HR measure and at the same time a foundation for building a brand. If employees can’t oshi their own company, it is hard to get only customers to do so; the passion that reaches fans usually seeps out from inside the company first. We expect that setups where engagement and marketing staff sit at the same table to design “a company people oshi” will become a point of debate in organization building from here on.

Summary

In-house oshi-katsu is not an effort to “make employees fans of the company” but an effort to build a circuit through which the passion for what employees already like can flow naturally. Start with a small step, such as “celebrating” or “putting thanks into words.”

For support using OSHI-MAP®, our framework for diagnosing how “oshi-able” an organization or brand is, please contact KAZAORI Inc. (in Japanese). Related article: What Is Oshi-Katsu Marketing?