No country adores cats quite as much as Japan. One look at Japanese art, literature, or media, and you’ll see just how Japan ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Maybe you're brushing up on the Japanese language, are an aficionado of Japanese culture, or have Japanese heritage yourself.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. It probably comes as no surprise, then, that there's a treasure trove of great Japanese names you can give your lovable little 猫 ...

Maneki-neko, translated as beckoning cat but also known as lucky cat or welcome cat, is recognisable internationally, often found behind cash registers of restaurants and retail outlets – and also in ...

Their influence is evident in every corner of society, the imperial family owns some, and Tokyo even has its own ‘cat town’ Feline features stare out from the covers of umpteen novels, they have an ...

TASHIROJIMA, JapanTASHIROJIMA, Japan — On a small island off Japan’s northeastern coast, visitors make offerings at a shrine for unlikely local guardians: cats. The “Neko Jinja,” or Cat Shrine, ...

NAGASAKI, Japan — In Japan, bobtail cats are considered good luck and Nagasaki is the place to find them. They are known as “omagari neko (bent-tail cats)” or “kagi neko (hook cats)” and have their ...

Cats are beloved in Japan, as they have been for thousands of years. From old mythological tales of feline yokai like the smart shape-shifting bakeneko to the Hello Kitties and lucky maneki-nekos of ...

Cats have been an ever-present part of Japanese culture for hundreds of years: sometimes cherished as devoted protectors of Buddhist scriptures, other times feared as devious yokai (supernatural ...