Most cat cafés per country

The country currently containing the most cat cafés is Japan, which has over 300. Tokyo alone contained more than 60 as of 2016. The first Japanese cat café opened in Osaka in 2004. The reason why they are so popular in this country is believed to be because many apartments in Japan forbid the ownership of pets. Instead, people can enjoy the presence of cats by spending time with them in dedicated cafés.

For this same reason (i.e., because many apartments in Japan forbid the ownership of pets), a range of other animal-featuring cafés have also become popular in Japan – including dog cafés, reptile cafés, parrot cafés, goldfish cafés, rabbit cafés and even owl cafés – where visitors can de-stress themselves at the end of the working day in the company of tame animals of their choice.