Tama the Cat: The Stray Who Became a Station Master

Tama the cat was a stray calico who became the station master of a tiny railway station in Japan. Her job was to greet passengers. She was so good at it that people traveled from across the country just to see her, and a struggling rural line found its riders again.

A Stray at Kishi Station

Tama grew up with a group of stray cats near Kishi Station. Passengers fed them, and so did Toshiko Koyama, the station's informal caretaker, who looked after the cats. In 2006, the newly formed Wakayama Electric Railway took over the line and made all its stations unstaffed to cut costs. The cats' shelter also had to go to make room for a new road.

Koyama asked the railway's president, Mitsunobu Kojima, if the cats could live inside the station. He agreed. He reportedly saw Tama as a real-life maneki-neko, the beckoning cat that brings good luck.

How Did Tama the Cat Become a Station Master?

On January 5, 2007, the railway officially named Tama station master. Instead of a salary she got a year's supply of cat food, a gold name tag for her collar, and a station master's cap made to fit her. Her main duty was greeting passengers.

The publicity worked. Passenger numbers that January reportedly rose 17% compared with a year earlier. In 2008 she was promoted to "super station master", with an office made from a converted ticket booth.

A Station Shaped Like a Cat

Tama kept collecting titles over the years. A train on the line was decorated with cartoon Tamas, and in 2010 Kishi Station itself was rebuilt to look like a cat's face, with two dormer windows for eyes. One study estimated that the publicity around Tama added about 1.1 billion yen to the local economy, an effect people in Japan nicknamed "nekonomics".

A Goddess of the Railway

Tama died on June 22, 2015, at 16. Thousands of fans came to pay their respects, and she was given a Shinto-style funeral at the station. That August she was enshrined as Tama Daimyojin, a spirit goddess, at a small shrine next to the station. Her deputy, Nitama, took over the job, and the railway still has cat station masters today.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Tama the cat still alive?

No. Tama died on June 22, 2015, at age 16. She was enshrined as a goddess at a shrine next to Kishi Station, and other cats have carried on the job since.

Why was Tama the cat made station master?

When the railway made Kishi Station unstaffed in 2006, the stray cats living there lost their shelter. The company president let them stay and made Tama station master in 2007, partly as a lucky beckoning cat for a line that needed riders.

Where is Tama the cat's station?

Kishi Station is at the end of the Kishigawa Line in Kinokawa, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. The station building is shaped like a cat's face, and Tama's shrine is right next to it.

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Sources

• Wikipedia: Tama (cat): dates, promotions, ridership, economic estimate, funeral and shrine
• Wakayama Electric Railway: Cat Stationmasters (Japanese): the railway's own station master page
• WIRED (2008): Cat Saves Japanese Railway: contemporary report on the ridership boost
• Government of Japan, Highlighting Japan (2022): The Station with a Cat as Its Stationmaster: the story of Kishi Station and its cats

More true animal stories: From Paw to Tail Blog

Cover photo: as365n2 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.