“NEKONOMICS” The economic impact from the animals is very real. Kansai University Professor Emeritus Katsuhiro Miyamoto, who publishes an annual report on “Nekonomics” (Neko means cat in Japanese), estimates it at nearly 3 trillion yen (US$19.5 billion) annually.  I have always been a cat person, but when I arrived here nearly 25 years ago, Japan was firmly dog territory – home of the famed Hachiko, the loyal dog who waited in vain at Shibuya station for a decade hoping for his deceased master’s return. Pet stores devoted far more shelf space for dogs, and foreign-language coverage was fixated on “pampered pooches”, usually correlated with the country’s low birth rate. In reality, Japan was simply early. For example, American’s spending on their “fur babies” more than doubled from 2010 to 2023. But when pet cats first outnumbered dogs in Japan in 2014 – a trend that has continued to accelerate – big business started to notice. The change is usually attributed to the shifting demographics: An ageing population and increased flow of people to cramped urban …