Interest
Japan's Unofficial Cat Day Celebrated with Cat Character Poll
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
To celebrate the unofficial Cat Day in Japan on Wednesday, the Japanese website Hollywood Channel hosted a poll surveying readers about their favorite cat character, and the Catbus character from My Neighbor Totoro placed first in the poll. Sanrio's Hello Kitty character, Doraemon's titular character, and Kiki's Delivery Service's Jiji all tied for second place in the poll.
Sony Computer Entertainment's mascot character Toro placed sixth in the poll, and Tama from Tama and Friends placed ninth. Placing fifth in the survey was "Nameneko," a craze that took off in Japan in the 1980s of dressing cats up in doll clothes and taking their pictures.
Tom from William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's Tom and Jerry cartoon franchise placed seventh, Marie from Disney's film The Aristocats placed eighth, and Jones from the Alien film franchise placed 10th.
The Japan Pet Food Association established February 22 as Cat Day in Japan in 1987, because the pronunciation of February 22 in Japanese sounds similar to the Japanese onomatopoeia word "nyan nyan nyan," the sound that a cat makes.
Image © 1988 Nibariki, G
© Nibariki
© Museo d'Arte Ghibli
Source: Hollywood Channel
