The island where it’s reigning cats… and there are no dogs: The Japanese island where felines outnumber humans six-to-one after they were introduced to kill mice
- More than 120 feral cats live on Aoshima Island, where they have just a handful of humans for company
- The cats were originally brought to the remote Japanese island to kill mice living on fishermen’s boats
- Most of the local residents left Aoshima island to work on mainland Japan after the Second World War
- But the cat population stayed and have since multiplied – meaning they now massively outnumber humans
3 March2020
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 on mainland Japan after the Second World War.
Company: The majority of the humans on Aoshima island are pensioners who didn’t seek work on mainland Japan after the Second World War
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.
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.’
Japan’s Aoshima Island cats outnumber humans six-to-one | Daily Mail Online