Why Are There Cat Islands in Japan?

Japan is known for its love of animal themed attractions, from rabbit cafes in Tokyo, to the tame deer that wander around Nara and the snow monkeys of Jigokudani, that bathe in hot springs.

It has also become popular to give cats job roles, such as appointing cats as Lords of castles and managers of train stations to attract tourism.

But there is one furry attraction in particular that tops them all. That is the “Cat Islands” or “Neko-Shima” in Japanese.

That is correct, whole islands that are inhabited by the furry felines.

The Island of Aoshima, which is located in the Ehime prefecture, is the most well-known cat island, although there are multiple “Cat Islands” off Japan’s coastline and even on inland salt water lakes.

Tashiro-jima is the second best known island for cats, but now the concept is becoming a popular tourist attraction, more islands are becoming cat

The ratio of cats to humans varies from island to island, and as it develops to be a popular tourist attraction, islands are competing to have the most cats.

The island of Aoshima has an approximate ratio of 10 cats to every 1 human, with the island having only 13 human residents, it has over 150 felines.

Whilst the island of Tashiro-jima has a human population of 100 and over 100 cats, so their ratio is more like 1:1.