Paid Companions: Human-Animal Bonds in Japanese Cat Cafés

• In Event: 215. Interspecies Intimacy: Evolving Human-Animal Socialities in Asia

Abstract

Animal cafés, a type of business where customers pay by the hour to spend time relaxing with animals and other animal lovers, became popular in Japan during the late 2000s as part of the iyashi, or healing, boom. The iyashi boom was a response to problems of economic and social precarity triggered by the end of the Japanese bubble and the changing economic situation. Customers in need of positive affective experiences turned to businesses like these to meet their emotional needs, making social interaction an economic exchange. This paper explores the kinds of intimate bonds that are created between human customer and animal “staff” in these contexts, which are felt to be authentic, but are necessarily different from the bond between a person and their pet. The café visitors bear no responsibility to the care of the animal beyond the interaction, and are free to enter and leave the situation according to their preference, but still see particular animals as “their” animals, even though they do not live together. The paper delves into how animal cafes relate to broader trends in the marketization of sociality, and how the relationship between humans and animals can be commodified. It also investigates why the young Japanese people who patronize these businesses are so attracted to socialization with non-human animals as a response to problems of disaffection and alienation.

Author

• Amanda Robinson, University of Pittsburgh