Cats have the run of this Japanese island

Aoshima has more felines than humans

March 05, 2015 02:41 am | Updated April 07, 2016 03:22 am IST - AOSHIMA, Japan

Cats crowd around village nurse and Ozu city official Atsuko Ogata as she carries a bag of cat food on Aoshima Island in southern Japan.

Cats crowd around village nurse and Ozu city official Atsuko Ogata as she carries a bag of cat food on Aoshima Island in southern Japan.

An army of feral cats rules a remote island in southern Japan, curling up in abandoned houses or strutting about in a fishing village that is overrun with felines outnumbering humans six to one.

Originally introduced to the mile-long island of Aoshima to deal with mice that plagued fishermen’s boats, the cats stayed on and multiplied.

More than 120 cats swarm the island with only a handful of humans for company, mostly pensioners who didn’t join the waves of migrants seeking work in the cities after World War II.

Aoshima, a 30-minute ferry ride off the coast of Ehime prefecture, had been home to 900 people in 1945. The only sign of human activity now is the boatload of day-trippers from the mainland, visiting what is locally known as Cat Island.

Cat tourism With no restaurants, cars, shops or kiosks selling snacks, Aoshima is no tourist haven. But cat lovers are not complaining.

“There is a ton of cats here, then there was this sort of cat witch who came out to feed the cats which was quite fun,” said 27-year-old Makiko Yamasaki. “So I’d want to come again.”

The cats of Aoshima are not too picky, surviving on the rice balls, energy bars or potatoes they cadge off tourists.

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