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Japanese Island Swarming With Cats to Draw Tourists
"I'm so happy to see Jack," said Shiho Amano, an 18-year-old cat lover who came from the central city of Nagoya to see a photo exhibition arranged by residents promoting tourism here.
"I want to live here after I retire," the student said, showing the screen of her cellphone which had snapshots of the cat.
Jack is not the first cat to become a national idol in Japan, nor to help revive the fortunes of an area aching for life.
Tama, a tortoiseshell stray, was last year named "master" of Kinokawa railway station in western Wakayama prefecture and given an official cap to go with the job. Her presence has led to a tourist and financial boom for the small city.
In the face of the apparent success of the campaign to use the cats to draw visitors, Tashiro's cat opponents have conceded defeat.
"I must say I appreciate them as they bring people here," said Mitsue Tsuda, a 65-year-old avowed cat hater, who complains of cats sneaking into her house.
"They don't wipe their feet even when it's raining," she said while admitting that the cats do look cute in the exhibited pictures.
Tashiro fishermen traditionally give part of their catch to cats, which are spotted everywhere on this 3.14-square-kilometre (7.9-square-mile) island 20 kilometres (12.4 miles) off the port city of Ishinomaki in northern Japan.
Kazuko Hatakeyama, 69, does not fish but some 20 cats "commute" each day to her house, a result of her twice-a-day feeding for decades.
"Since they come to my place and plead for food so much, I don't have any other choice. Whenever I go out, they follow me," she said as she fed the cats raising their paws and mewing loudly towards her.
The ferry between the island the mainland used to have only 10-20 passengers a day on its three daily trips after the summer season. But by September this year that number had roughly doubled year on weekdays and more than tripled on weekends.
"We see more people carrying cameras and food rather than fishing rods," said an official of the Ajishima Line ferry, adding that tourists were still coming despite the winter weather.
Source-AFP
SPH
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