, Columnist
Hello, Kitty — Japan’s $20 Billion Cat Boom
Shinjuku’s giant 3-D cat.
Photographer: Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
Much of Asia was celebrating the Year of the Horse this week. In Japan, which does not mark Lunar New Year, attention turns to a different animal.
There is no cat in the Chinese zodiac — legend has it that the rat tricked it out of a place — but Japan has a day that more than makes up for it. Feb. 22 is Neko no Hi, or Cat Day, with 2/22 able to be read in Japanese like a feline “meow.” Established in the late 1980s by the Japan Pet Food Association, it’s one of many commemorative days based on wordplay — such as Good Couple’s Day (Nov. 22) or Mayonnaise Day (rapidly approaching on March 1; don’t forget the mayonnaise lover in your life).