In English, cats say meow. In Japanese, they say nyan. And the Japanese word for two is ni. Read 2/22 out loud in Japanese, ni-ni-ni, and it sounds like a cat: nyan nyan nyan.
That pun is the whole reason. Japan’s Cat Day, Neko no Hi, was set up in 1987 by a committee working with Japan’s pet food association, as a day to be thankful for living with cats. It’s now one of the biggest cat days anywhere, with cat-themed treats in the shops, busy cat cafés and timelines full of cat photos.
A country that loves its cats
Japan has a long love affair with cats, and a lot of it is about luck.
- The lucky cat. The maneki-neko, the cat with one paw raised, sits in shop windows across the world. In Japan it’s often a calico, called mike-neko, three-fur cat. Our story on male calicos tells of the one that went to Antarctica.
- The cat island. On Tashirojima, off Japan’s north-east coast, cats were kept to protect the silkworms from mice. The silk trade has gone and the people have mostly left, about 80 at the last count, but the cats stayed. They now outnumber the people, and dogs aren’t allowed.
Tama, the station master
The best cat story from Japan is about a small railway line in Wakayama that was losing money. A calico called Tama lived at Kishi station. In January 2007, the railway made her the official station master, complete with a station master’s cap.
Passengers came to see her. That month, the line carried 17% more people than a year before, and one study put her value to the local economy at 1.1 billion yen. She was promoted several times. When she died in 2015, aged 16, she was enshrined at a nearby Shinto shrine, and her deputy, Nitama, took over the job.
What to do on 22 February
- Say thank you to whoever feeds the cats on your street.
- Snap your street’s calicos. In Japan, they’re the lucky ones.
- Find out what your local cat group needs, and give a little. Food, money or time.
- Post a photo of a street cat you love. Three nyans, and you’re done.
Snap a cat on 22 February. Nyan nyan nyan.
