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On the Saturday afternoon I visited the cafe with my husband there were 16 others, the majority Japanese women in their early twenties, already at play with the 12 cats housed there. People drifted out during the hour we stayed there, replaced by a constant flow of others: more young women, a middle-aged couple, two elderly men, and a young man who quickly busied himself taking pictures of the various cats lazing around the store.
The owners of the cafe, the Hanadas, visited a cat and dog cafe in Taipei and decided to open the first Tokyo cat cafe in the summer of 2005. The Japanese pet industry brings in about US$10 billion a year, and Neko no Mise is one of about 20 stores in Tokyo that have opened in the last few years, capitalizing on this growing interest in cats and dogs.
The small room is littered with couches, chairs and tables as well as a well-used massage chair and varying sorts of cat scratching posts and cat homes. Cats drape themselves around the store, sniffing customers’ cups – one of the cats is apparently a milk thief – lounging on top of the drink machine, napping and playing with customers. A large bookcase filled with Japanese comics and toys for the cats is also available for customers.
For a city that is populated by workers who average about two hours of unpaid overtime per day, Tokyo is famous for its zealous workdays. Many workers, often facing an hour commute on the train, leave the house as early as 7:00 a.m. and work well into the night, arriving home on the last train at midnight or later.
In the 1980s the Japanese phenomenon of karoshi, which is sudden death due to overwork, captured media attention. The Japanese Ministry of Health announced that 147 workers died and 208 fell severely ill from overwork in 2007. For this overworked and overstressed city, a cat cafe is a haven.
One man confessed that although he loves cats, his busy work schedule does not allow him the freedom to responsibly care for a cat and thus the cafe allows him to indulge in the simple relaxing pleasures of playing with a cat. One Tokyo cat cafe claims to have about 160 visitors a day on Sundays and holidays.
Although there are rules – wash hands before touching cats, cats should not be harassed, no flash cameras, walk carefully – they are at a minimum. Neko no Mise played relaxing music in the background and many customers alternated between playing with the cats, taking pictures of the cats with their cell phones, reading comic books and chatting.
I spoke with two girls, Yuki and Haruka, Tokyo shop girls that were first-time visitors to Neko no Mise. They explained that they were standing on the train platform when they saw the cafe and decided to make their way over. Haruka explained to me that, like many Tokyo landlords, her apartment owner does not allow pets, and being a cat lover, the store was a definite must-see.
She spent most of her time petting Porte, a cat that waddled around the room with her very short legs. A cat menu placed on the table explains that Porte is one of the most popular cats despite her small flat ears. Some of the other cat residents include Chataro, the first cat picked up from the wild, who is described as “smart and aloof toward humans,” Pocky, who is “very nice and loves people,” and Shirodame, who is “usually calm but can turn violent in competition for food.”
