To provide a nonwoven fabric of a staple fiber with excellent heat-retaining property, suitable for night clothes/living material applications such as a covering Futon (bedding), a cover for a foot warmer and a lap robe, and clothes application such as a down jacket; and to provide a method for economically producing the staple fiber.

The nonwoven fabric of the staple fiber with the excellent heat-retaining property comprises a synthetic fiber having the surface to which at least one of a metal, an inorganic material and an inorganic oxide is attached. The method for producing the spattered staple fiber comprises subjecting the fiber in a drawn fiber bundle shape to sputtering, and cutting the sputtered product.