There are exactly 11 islands in Japan where cats outnumber humans. Tourists call them neko-jima — “cat islands.” Locals call them home, sort of.

On Aoshima, the most famous, the ratio is roughly six cats to one person. There are no cars, no shops, no hotels, no police. There is one boat per day, six days a week, that brings a handful of curious mainlanders for exactly two hours before taking them back to civilization.

Here’s what those two hours actually look like.

Getting There

The boat to Aoshima leaves from Nagahama port in Ehime Prefecture, on the island of Shikoku. The journey takes 35 minutes across cold blue water. The ferry holds maybe 30 people. In peak season, you must arrive an hour early or you don’t get on.

Cost: ¥1,400 round-trip. The boat does not have a cafe. There is no Wi-Fi. You will sit on a hard plastic seat next to either a serious birdwatcher or someone with three bags of cat food. Probably both.

What You See When You Arrive

You step off the boat. You are not greeted by people. You are greeted by 20-30 cats, sitting on the seawall, watching the ferry with the calm intensity of long-time residents whose lives now revolve around tourist food drops.

The cats are mostly calico, tabby, and short-haired tuxedos. They are surprisingly clean for stray cats. Many are missing tips of ears — the international sign of having been spayed or neutered by a charity vet. They are well-fed. They will not chase you, but they will follow you. Quietly. In groups of four to seven.

You walk inland. The village is two streets long. Most of the houses are abandoned. The roofs are caving in. There’s a tiny shrine surrounded by, you guessed it, more cats.

The Human Population

There are roughly 9-15 people living on Aoshima full-time, depending on the year. Almost all are over 75. They are the last fishermen and their wives, holding the line against the slow demographic erosion that has hollowed out rural Japan.

They don’t really want tourists. They don’t mind them either. They mostly want to be left alone with their cats and the sea.

You will not see a single house with a working business sign. You will not find a vending machine (genuinely rare for Japan; see our other story). You will not find a toilet — bring your own. You will not find food, water, or shelter, so bring those too.

Where the Cats Came From

The cats were originally brought to Aoshima during the early 1900s to eat the mice on fishing boats. When the fishing industry collapsed, the cats stayed. They were never spayed. They reproduced. They became the dominant species.

By 2015, after a viral BBC video, Aoshima briefly became a global phenomenon, and the population swelled past 200 cats. Volunteer vet groups have since sterilized most of them. The colony is now stable around 100-120.

The Other 10 Cat Islands

If Aoshima is full or you want variety:

None of them have hotels. All of them require a return ferry the same day.

What This Tells You About Japan

Cat islands exist because rural Japan is dying. When a fishing village empties out faster than the cats can be re-homed, you end up with islands of feral felines outnumbering an aging human population by an order of magnitude. It’s both adorable and quietly tragic — which is, broadly, the entire mood of countryside Japan in 2026.

The cats of Aoshima are not pets. They are the last residents of a village that has run out of people.

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WeirdJapan.news covers the strange, the small, and the slightly-too-much in Japanese culture.

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