Catland
The Soft Power of Cat Culture in Japan

Catland has been awarded the 2020 INDIES Gold Medal for Popular Culture!

Imagine you’re reading the news, and you come across an article about a new product or service that caters to cats. Maybe it strikes you as unusually thoughtful, or it looks exceptionally well-crafted. Perhaps it appears to have been undertaken with a seriousness of purpose and attention to detail that would rival that of any human-centered endeavor—and this seriousness, in and of itself, is irresistibly endearing. Do you have any doubt where this hypothetical cat product or service comes from? You do not: it’s from Japan. 

The world of Japanese cat culture is vast. Enter, and you’ll discover Shinto and Buddhist beliefs about animals and nature, folklore about cats both real and supernatural, cats depicted in Japanese works of art and literature over the course of centuries, cat-inspired material culture and everyday objects, cat animation, the global export of cuteness, cat tourism and nekonomics—the local term for the economic boon that results from a popular cat attraction. Japan’s cat culture contains multitudes, and it transcends physical geography. You might be allergic to cats. You might not be a cat person. (Yet.) But once you’ve been beckoned inside, the chances are good that you’ll decide to stay a while. Welcome to Catland.

Catland: the Soft Power of Cat Culture in Japan is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, and IndieBound. Stay tuned for news of upcoming events and book-signings! Press inquiries: please email Nicholas Teodoro at Countryman Press.

Catland includes original photographs by Lee Chapman, Giovanni Piliarvu, and Rie Yamamoto.