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Jan 14 2007 2 Comments

Top Cat

With Japan’s declining population raising fears of a large influx of foreign workers, officials at the Wakayama Electric Railway Company have hit upon a novel way of avoiding such a problem — employ animals instead. An idea that it has put into practice at Kishi Station in Kinokawa by promoting Tama the tabby to stationmaster.

stationmaster cat

Resplendent in an official railway cap, the 7-year-old Kinokawa native will be expected to welcome passengers, and to avoid any feline-related friction, the two deputy stationmasters are also cats — the three of them being ‘housed’ at the station shop.

A solution that not only helps avoid any potentially awkward cultural misunderstandings, but makes perfect economical sense, as the three officials are ‘paid’ in cat food. Details regarding health insurance and pension payments however were not disclosed.

Categorized: Odd

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Ken Y-N says

    1/14/2007 at 11:45 pm

    Note that it is a pure-bred (perhaps…) Japanese tabby – none of your gaijin American Short-Hairs or whatever, although I do hear after pay-day he can be found at the local cat-house spending his money on his Russian (Blue) girlfriend.

    Reply
  2. Levitra says

    8/19/2008 at 6:36 am

    This is probably the most unique thing I have come across today. Not really sure what to make of it but I do want to see where it goes.

    Reply

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