In recent years, a trend known as “Oshi-katsu” has become popular in Japan. “Oshi-katsu” refers to all activities involving supporting or stanning a person of interest (such as an idol, anime character, athlete, or artist), with “Oshi” refers to a fanʼs favorite. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between “Oshi-katsu”, sports fan activities and mental health. The subjects were 1,752 people (average age=37.99 ± 16.19 years) obtained through an online survey company. As a result of multiple comparisons, the sense of happiness was highest in sports fans compared to the other groups, the sense of depression was highest in the Oshi-katsu group compared to the other groups, and the sense of authenticity was lowest in the non-fan group compared to the other groups. Next, as a result of exploratory factor analysis, the 28 items of the original “Oshi-katsu scale” were interpreted as a six-factor structure (life enrichment through Oshi-katsu, aversion toward same Oshi fans, overdependence on Oshi, overinvestment in Oshi-katsu, fulfillment through Oshi-katsu friendships, emotional damage by Oshi’s hiatus) and had sufficient internal consistency. The results of an unpaired t-test showed that Oshi-katsu group had higher total scores on the Oshi-katsu scale than sports fans. Analysis using covariance structure modeling revealed that positive paths to feelings of depression were observed for “dependence on Oshi” and “emotional damage caused by the Oshi’s hiatus” from the Oshi-katsu scale, while negative paths were observed for “life enrichment by Oshi-katsu”, “over-investment in Oshi-katsu”, and “number of years of Oshi-katsu”.
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