Hundreds Turn Out for Cat’s Funeral in Japan

At least 500 people attended a beloved cat’s funeral last week in Kinokawa, Japan. The 15-year-old calico named Nitama had been the “feline train stationmaster” at Kishi station on the local rail line since 2015.

Train employees and fans paid their respects as the Wakayama Electric Railway Co. honored the late cat. Nitama was the second stationmaster cat at Kishi, following another calico named Tama. After Tama’s death in 2015, Nitama took over the ambassadorial role created to help advertise the rail line.

“She worked diligently and provided irreplaceable comfort,” Mitsunobu Kojima, president of Wakayama Electric Railway and chairman of the funeral committee, said in his memorial address. “Nitama, please watch over Wakayama Electric Railway from heaven alongside Stationmaster Tama.”

Nitama was born in Okayama, about 250 kilometers from Wakayama. She debuted as stationmaster at Idakiso, another stop on the Wakayama line, before becoming the deputy at Kishi in 2012. There she was mentored by Tama herself and eventually graduated from Cat Stationmaster Training School. (To matriculate a cat must be relaxed around people and be willing to wear a hat; Nitama nailed it.)

“The reason I appointed Nitama as a successor to Tama is that she had teaching experience from Tama directly,” Mitsunobu told CNN at the time. “Tama was very mild and she seldom got angry, though she was strict with her subordinate Nitama.”

When Tama passed the railway company held off appointing her successor for 50 days, a traditional mourning period. Although there is no immediate heir apparent to Natima, we imagine a personable hat-wearing stationmaster will emerge sometime in the new year.

Photo credit: Yomiuri Shimbun