A cat café is a theme café whose attraction is cats that can be watched and played with.
Patrons pay a cover fee, generally hourly, and thus cat cafés can be seen as a form of supervised indoor pet rental.
The world's first cat café[f 1] opened in Taiwan in 1998.[1] The Taiwanese cat café, located in Taipei[2], eventually became famous in Japan and began to attract many Japanese tourists as well as domestic visitors.
In Japan, the first cat café[f 2] opened in Osaka in 2004.[1]
Cat cafés are quite popular in Japan, with Tokyo being home to at least 39 cat cafés. A pioneer is Cat's Store (猫の店 Neko no Mise),
by Norimasa Hanada, which opened in 2005. The popularity of cat cafés
in Japan is attributed to many apartments forbidding pets, and to cats
providing relaxing companionship in what may otherwise be a stressful
and lonesome urban life. Other forms of pet rental, such as rabbit cafes, are also common in Japan. [3]
There are various cat cafés. Some cat cafés feature specific categories of cat such as black cats, fat cats, rare breed cats or ex-stray cats. A cat café must obtain a license and comply with the strict requirements and regulations of the Animal Treatment/Protection Law.[4]
Japanese cat cafés feature strict rules to ensure cleanliness and
animal welfare, in particular seeking to ensure that the cats are not
disturbed by excessive and unwanted attention, such as by young children
or when sleeping. Many cat cafés also seek to raise awareness of cat
welfare issues, such as abandoned and stray cats. In 2011, American
singer Katy Perry was seen at one of the cafes in Tokyo while on tour.
One of the first cat cafés in Europe, Cafe Neko, opened in Vienna, Austria. [5]
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