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Japanese people are primarily 'dog' people. Perhaps it because dog people take their dog out for walks that we notice them more, unlike cat people who stay indoors. Cats were originally kept on farms to hunt mice, their appearance as pets is very recent. Japanese are very superstitious about cats, especially black cats with long tails. Long tails were considered bad luck so people would cut them off. Somehow nature got its revenge and many kittens are now born with short tails. With the decrease in feral/stray dogs, feral cats have increased enormously and have now reached epidemic proportions in urban areas where there is plenty of waste food and where kindly old women feed them. Since these women seldom take the responsible step of having these cats neutered, they proliferate to the annoyance of neighbours.
Japanese houses are side by side, sometime inches apart and have very small or no gardens. There is nowhere for a cat to go out except into neighbourhood gardens, parks or onto streets. The risks to cats outside are very great; traffic accidents, poisoned by people who hate cats, or trapped by gangs that want cats for their skins.
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