A Japanese Train Station Found A Sick Stray Cat And Made It The Boss.
In the port city of Choshi near Tokyo, platform staff at a struggling railway found a tabby cat last October wandering around the station, thin, sick, and with her eyes frozen shut. They had space and they had soft hearts, so they kept her and nursed her back to health. By January she had been signed up as an apprentice. By July, Nakano-san had been officially promoted to the rank of stationmaster at Nakanocho Station, awarded a small cap and a medallion for her collar, and had become the face of Choshi Electric Railway Co.'s public relations campaign. Her official curriculum vitae, published by the railway company, lists her key professional qualifications as pushing computer mice off desks and sleeping on paperwork. On the day of her debut, the station was swarmed by reporters. The tabby who had arrived barely able to open her eyes was now, officially, in charge.
Japan has a documented tradition of exactly this kind of thing, and it has a proven track record. The original cat stationmaster, Tama, was appointed at Kishi Station in Wakayama in 2007, and the publicity around her appointment increased passenger numbers by 17 percent in the following month compared to the same period the year before. A broader economic study estimated that Tama's fame contributed 1.1 billion yen to the local economy over the years, and she was widely credited with saving the station from closure. After Tama died in 2015, she was succeeded by Nitama, who passed away last November, and now Yontama, whose name translates as Fourth Tama, holds the title at Kishi Station, having transferred over from Idakiso Station. Choshi, positioned too close to Tokyo to stand out as a destination but too far away for a comfortable day trip, needed something to draw visitors to its historic temples, lighthouses, and waterfront. The stray tabby with the frozen eyes and the official cap is now doing exactly that job, and she is, by all available evidence, taking it very seriously.
