How a stray cat’s new job turned around Japan’s failing railway

By 2006, the Kishigawa Line in Japan’s Wakayama Prefecture was in trouble. Years of declining ridership had put the rural route at risk of shutting down, and when Wakayama Electric Railway took over its operations that year, the company needed a low-cost way to bring passengers back.

It found one in an unlikely candidate: a stray calico cat already living near Kishi Station, familiar to locals in the area. In 2007, railway president Misutaka Kojima appointed the cat, named Tama, as the line’s honorary station master, fitting her with a custom-made cap and assigning her the job of greeting passengers.

The publicity stunt quickly outgrew its original purpose. Wakayama Electric Railway reported that passenger numbers rose 17% during Tama’s first year in the role, driven by visitors travelling from across Japan and abroad to meet her in person. The surge extended to local restaurants and souvenir shops, which saw business pick up alongside the railway’s own ridership.

According to an economic analysis by Professor Katsuhiro Miyamoto of Kansai University, Tama’s fame generated close to ¥1.1 billion in her first year on the job, a figure covering tourism spending, merchandise sales and the broader economic activity her popularity stirred up. The railway followed through with Tama-branded trains, cat-themed merchandise, and an eventual rebuild of Kishi Station featuring a roof shaped like a cat’s face.

Tama was later promoted to Operating Officer of the railway, and her story, now known in Japan as the ‘Tama effect,’ is still cited by tourism experts as proof that a genuine local story can outperform a conventional marketing budget. She died in 2015, and thousands attended the memorial events that followed, including a traditional Shinto ceremony held in her honour.

Wikimedia Commons/by Sanpei