Trend Of The Week (5)

A craze that is sweeping through certain sections of Japanese society at the moment is nui-katsu. Katsu means lifestyle while nui is an abbreviation of nuigurumi, which means a stuffed animal or puppet. Put all that together and nui-katsu means living with soft toys, principally stuffed animals, but for practitioners it means much more than that. It means going out with them, treating them well and sharing cute pictures of them living their best lives on social media.

Such is the craze that more and more adults are travelling around Japan with their much-loved nuigurumi, raising the problem of where to put them at night. The enterprising Tokyo Inn hotel chain has started offering rooms with cute little cots which can be hired for an extra 300 yen, about £1.50, a night.

The gimmick has been so successful that the chain is planning to expand their offering. As one reviewer wrote recently, “the stuffies are sleeping soundly in dreamland”.

It takes all sorts.