{"id":68549,"date":"2024-12-27T19:19:31","date_gmt":"2024-12-27T10:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2024\/dec\/27\/japans-cat-island-falls-victim-to-demographic-crisis"},"modified":"2024-12-27T19:19:31","modified_gmt":"2024-12-27T10:19:31","slug":"japans-cat-island-falls-victim-to-demographic-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=68549","title":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s \u2018cat island\u2019 falls victim to demographic crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Famous for felines that outnumber its humans, Aoshima is also emblematic of a deeper trend afflicting the country\u2019s rural and island communities<\/p>\n<p>The reason for Aoshima\u2019s nickname was clear before we had set foot on the island. As our tiny vessel slowed to a halt and its handful of passengers prepared to disembark, the quayside was alive with orangey-white blurs \u2013 a whiskered welcome party that forms as soon as its members hear the hum of an approaching motor.<\/p>\n<p>The only human here to greet us is Naoko Kamimoto, appropriately dressed in a pinafore with feline designs, who secures the boat with a rope as half a dozen cats swirl around her feet.<\/p>\n<p>Cats lazing in the sun among the Kamimoto\u2019s fishing nets.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2024\/dec\/27\/japans-cat-island-falls-victim-to-demographic-crisis\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Famous for felines that outnumber its humans, Aoshima is also emblematic of a deeper trend afflicting the country\u2019s rural and island communitiesThe reason for Aoshima\u2019s nickname was clear before we had set foot on the island. As our tiny vessel slowed &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4543,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2474,265,41,283,88,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ageing","category-animals","category-asia-pacific","category-cats","category-japan","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4543"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68550,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68549\/revisions\/68550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}