{"id":78194,"date":"2024-05-31T08:48:02","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T01:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/?p=78194"},"modified":"2024-05-31T08:48:02","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T01:48:02","slug":"the-tiny-island-where-cats-outnumber-humans-and-made-it-a-tourist-destination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/the-tiny-island-where-cats-outnumber-humans-and-made-it-a-tourist-destination\/","title":{"rendered":"The tiny island where cats outnumber humans \u2013 and made it a tourist destination"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>The tiny island where cats outnumber humans \u2013 and made it a tourist destination\n</h2><p>On a small island off Japan\u2019s northeastern coast, there is an unlikely guardian angel: cats. A shrine to cats on the Japanese island of Tashirojima.\n</p><p>The animals outnumber humans on the island of Tashirojima, and there is even a \u201cNeko Jinja,\u201d or cat shrine, to honour their presence.\n</p><p>Legend says the island used to be famous for sericulture and farmers would keep cats because they would chase away rats, protecting the silkworm cocoons from the rodents.\n</p><p>Fishermen on the island have also traditionally believed that cats bring good luck, including large hauls of fish.\n</p><p>Another legend says fishermen used to watch the cats\u2019 behavior for tips on the coming weather before heading to sea.\n</p><p><img fetchpriority='\"high\"' decoding='\"async\"' class='\"alignnone' size-full wp-image-78198 src="%5C%22https:%5C/%5C/inovatestory.com%5C/wp-content%5C/uploads%5C/2024%5C/05%5C/7-3.png%5C%22" alt='\"\"' width='\"640\"' height='\"423\"' srcset='\"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/7-3.png' https: sizes='\"(max-width:'>\n</p><p>The islanders have long coexisted with the cats. One day, however, a fisherman accidentally injured a cat while working. Feeling sorry for the injury, the islanders built the shrine for cats.\n</p><p>Tashirojima is part of the city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture in the Tohoku region, which became well known after a tsunami devastated the area following a massive magnitude 9 earthquake on 11 March 2011.\n</p><p>Over 100 cats inhabit Tashirojima, along with about 50 humans, according to the city\u2019s website.\n</p><p>Along a paved road running about 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) between the island\u2019s two ports, cats groom themselves and mingle with other cats.\n</p><p>There are a few cafes and inns, but no car rental shops, gas stations or public transportation. Tourists are expected to walk up and down the island\u2019s hills while visiting.\n</p><p>Most of the cats are used to tourists, who can be seen petting the friendly animals throughout the island.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"</p><p>The tiny island where cats outnumber humans \u2013 and made it a tourist destination On a small island off Japan\u2019s northeastern coast, there is an unlikely guardian angel: cats. A shrine to cats on the Japanese island of Tashirojima. The animals outnumber humans on the island of Tashirojima, and there is even a \u201cNeko Jinja,\u201d\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":78197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[670],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-78194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/79.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}</p>