(28 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nagasaki, Japan – 21 April 2025
1. Tabby cat named Mi-chan with a key-shaped tail being stroked, UPSOUND No name given, (Japanese): "Look at this (tail). Isn’t this amazing?"
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nagasaki, Japan – 24 April 2025
2. Exterior of Omagari Neko Shrine, near Spectacle Bridge
3. Shrine member of staff and member of Nagasaki Cat Society, Kazuya Hideshima, helping customer
4. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Kazuya Hideshima, Omagari Neko Shrine staff member and member of Nagasaki Cat Society:
++PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOTS 5-6++
"Omagari neko is a term for cats whose tail bones are genetically bent. The shape varies from key-shaped to bobtail and bun-shaped tails but all are believed to bring happiness and luck."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nagasaki, Japan – 21 April 2025
5. Various of stray cat with short and bent tail
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nagasaki, Japan – 24 April 2025
6. Tilt up of cat fortune-telling slips hanging outside shrine
7. Lucky charms in shape of cats
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tokyo – 22 May 2025
8. Veterinarian and cat specialist Soshin Yamamoto carrying his 10-year-old cat, Katsuo
9. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Soshin Yamamoto, veterinarian and cat specialist:
++PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOTS 10-12++
"One thing is to do with Nagasaki’s geographical and cultural character. Having the only port open to the world in Japan during the period of isolation, cats came in and out (of the country) which led to genetic mutation."
10. Close of Katsuo
11. Yamamoto showing X-rays of a cat’s straight tail and a bobtail cat on monitor
12. Yamamoto pointing to X-ray of twisted cat’s tail
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nagasaki, Japan – 24 April 2025
13. Mid of key-shaped tail cat
STORYLINE:
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 own society of admirers and even a dedicated Shinto shrine.
Their tails come in varieties including hook-shaped at the tip, curved or in a bun, explained Kazuya Hideshima, a worker at Omagari Neko Shrine and member of the Nagasaki Cat Society.
Past findings have indicated bobtails accounted for nearly 80% of the cats in Nagasaki, twice the occurrence of anywhere else in Japan.
Japanese cats are believed to have come from China in the 6th century with Buddhist monks, serving as rat hunters to protect religious scriptures on ships.
Nagasaki bobtails have their roots in the Dutch East Indies when the city was the only foreign port during Japan’s closed era in the 17th to 19th centuries. They hunted rats to protect shipments on their way from Southeast Asia to Japan, according to Nagasaki cultural officials.
Soshin Yamamoto, a veterinarian and cat specialist, said the large population of bobtails in Nagasaki is likely the result of a genetic mutation that reproduced in a relatively isolated environment when the nation was shut up tight.
Nagasaki residents hope the cats bring in tourists and help business.
Natsuno Kani, a 50-year-old tourist from Tokyo who recently visited the bobtail shrine, said she knew Nagasaki was famous for bent-tail cats.
But Abigail Tarraso, an artist from Spain based in Takeo City in neighbouring Saga prefecture, was unfamiliar with the species, which is not as popular in Spain.
“Today is the first time in Nagasaki that I have ever heard of this,” said Cindy Bi, an American who is also an artist.
“I am excited to look around for them. Maybe we will see a few."
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