Interesting!! St. Louis has a similar (but worse, per usual) doll called the Billiken that was apparently big in the 1800s and found its way to Japan, which led to it being labeled a deity of a specific street market or something dumb. I know this because it was deemed culturally significant enough to be St. Louis University’s mascot and I hate it deeply. On another note, I think the baby-fication of young (and old) adults is less about trying to reclaim lost innocence and more about a refusal to take responsibility, which I believe actually drives fascism forward. But who knows