Talent Kayoko Okubo (55) spoke about the “dopamine addiction” of constantly checking her smartphone and social media on the November 3 broadcast of the Nippon TV program “Ueda to Onna ga DEEP ni Hoeru Yoru” (Ueda and the Women Howl DEEPly at Night), and revealed that she also struggles with a shopping addiction. Following her remark, “The act of buying calms me down. I can’t stop,” reactions on a 5ch thread were split between those who accepted it, saying “it’s a rich person’s privilege, so as long as she’s keeping the economy going, that’s fine,” and those who worried that “continuing to spend only on herself might start to feel empty” — opinions diverged on how to view shopping addiction.
11/4 (Wed) 11:15
Talent Kayoko Okubo (55) appeared on the Nippon TV program “Ueda to Onna ga DEEP ni Hoeru Yoru” (Tuesdays, 11:59 PM), which aired on the 3rd. She revealed what she’s addicted to.
The theme of the day was “dopamine addiction.” She talked about situations and behaviors in which a single source of stimulation is no longer enough — like constantly scrolling social media in any spare moment, or checking her phone while watching a movie or TV.
Rich people can do whatever they want — just keep that money circulating.
4AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:34
Re: #3
Exactly this. It's a rich person's privilege. Keep giving back to the economy.
64AnonymousNov 4, 2026 18:49
Re: #3
Exactly that. The economy keeps turning because rich people splurge on useless stuff. Rich people who just hoard their money and live frugally are actually bad for society.
5AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:34
If she didn't have money, she couldn't buy things, so it's not an issue. She's single anyway, so who cares.
7AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:35
I wonder if it's mostly clothes she's buying? There's a limit to how much food you can eat, but fashion is basically infinite.
12AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:37
Re: #7
If I had the money, I'd want to buy a new winter coat I liked every single year too lol
8AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:35
Went to check out Walkmans today. The 650,000-yen Walkman sounded exactly the same as my Xperia lol
9AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:36
That's fine, go for it. You can't take your money with you to heaven anyway.
10AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:37
Shopping is fine, but she should also get her end-of-life affairs in order ('shukatsu' — preparing for one's death, including sorting through belongings). Dealing with everything she leaves behind is a pain.
11AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:37
Well, she's got the money, so I think she should enjoy it, but isn't she at the age where spending all your money and time purely on your own pleasure starts to feel hollow?
15AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:40
Once I got past 30 and got older, I started thinking about having to throw things away eventually whenever I buy something, so I rarely buy physically large items anymore.
16AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:40
The real winners in life are the high-school-dropout delinquents who had a shotgun marriage and lots of kids. In their 40s with grandkids already and a big family to lean on — genuinely enviable. Once you feel truly lonely, education, money, and career mean nothing at all.
18AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:41
If you just keep following your desires, your house ends up buried in stuff. Yeah… I've done exactly that.
19AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:41
In Tokyo and Nagoya, about the only thing left on billboards these days is ads for 'Minna no Kaigo' (a nursing-care referral service).
21AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:42
Man, I'd love to just casually buy a high-performance PC on a whim.
22AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:44
My place is overflowing with cardboard boxes and stuff I bought that I didn't need. I want to throw it all out.
27AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:46
She's rich, so what's wrong with shopping?
28AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:46
Everyone's like that really. It's weird how people who bash 'dopamine kids' are so confident they're not addicted themselves.
35AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:49
Re: #28
People who use the term 'dopamine kids' are just excited to use a word they just picked up. Honestly, the guys spamming replies on 5ch all day are probably just 'dopamine old men' themselves — everyone posts because they want replies, because they want their posts to be seen.
60AnonymousNov 4, 2026 18:31
Re: #28
Though it is a pretty grim sight when a toddler too young for preschool is parked in a supermarket cart or stroller watching YouTube the whole time, screaming if you take the phone away. The 'dopamine kids' that grow out of that really do end up acting strange once they hit elementary school.
31AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:48
Better that the money gets spent than just hoarded — it's doing more good for society this way.
33AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:48
She doesn't have kids to leave her fortune to, so she might as well spend it freely.
34AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:49
Shopping aside, she should quit the smartphone addiction immediately.
36AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:49
I bet a lot of those boxes and packages never even get opened.
37AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:49
I don't watch TikTok, but when I end up burning time endlessly watching YouTube Shorts, I really hate myself afterward.
39AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:50
It's basically a given she won't have descendants. Die with zero, I guess. ("die with zero" — spending it all rather than leaving an inheritance)
40AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:51
The people who feel smug making fun of 'dopamine kids' are just using that to stabilize their own ego too.
41AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:51
In the end, happiness for a living creature comes down to this: having kids with someone you love, getting grandkids, and dying surrounded by family after saying your goodbyes.
42AnonymousNov 4, 2026 17:53
There are plenty of 'dopamine old men' with status and wealth who drown in lust and shower their mistresses with money — compared to that, this is pretty tame.
58AnonymousNov 4, 2026 18:25
A life where you only think about yourself and only ever spend money on yourself really does sound empty.
65AnonymousNov 4, 2026 18:49
Re: #58
It's probably fun, but there's likely a sense of emptiness to it too lol. Still, Okubo seems like the type who'd find fulfillment spending on, or leaving something behind for, her nieces and nephews.
74AnonymousNov 4, 2026 19:22
I used to be stuck in this cycle of buying things and then feeling too precious about them to actually use… but then I saw a news piece — I think from a Riisa Naka video or social media post — about using a high-end brand bag as an everyday grocery tote, with a comment attached saying, 'If you can't bring yourself to use something like that, it just means you and the item aren't on the same level.' That really opened my eyes.
76AnonymousNov 4, 2026 19:40
Re: #74
I was wondering what kind of bag she was using as a grocery tote, but it turns out it's a high-end brand's own eco-bag. For a second I thought she meant using an actual Birkin to carry ground beef lol
Background and Key Points of This Topic
“Dopamine addiction” is a colloquial term for a state in which the brain, after repeated exposure to strong stimuli such as social media and video streaming, grows accustomed to that stimulation and can no longer feel satisfied by a single activity alone — it is distinct from the clinical diagnosis of addiction. The same pattern has been pointed out with shopping addiction, where behavior tends to escalate as a person chases the momentary thrill of acquiring something. In the thread, the majority of voices accepted it as “a wealthy, single celebrity spending freely as she pleases,” while others suggested that the behavior might be a reflection of loneliness or emptiness — reactions were split. The article itself makes clear that Okubo only lightly touched on this tendency during the talk show, rather than discussing it as a serious problem.
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