Wakayama, Japan May. 08 Wed 8:02AM
Station Master Cat
Tama was a female calico cat famous for being the station master and operating officer at Kishi Station in 2007. She greeted passengers whilst wearing her official station master hat. The railway provided Tama with cat food as a salary. Tama’s presence increased the amount of passengers passing through the station by 17% within a month. In her time as station master, she contributed 1.1 billion yen to the local economy!
The president of the railway company and the mayor of the town promoted Tama to super station master in 2008, making her the only female in a managerial position in the company. This position allowed her an office (a converted ticket booth.)
In 2010, railway officials promoted her to Operating Officer, as a reward for increasing the station’s customer base so vastly.
By Takobou (Takobou) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC BY 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons
Tama had two stationmasters: her sister Chibi and her mother Miiko.
Tama became so famous that she appeared in a documentary called La Voie du Chat in French, and Katzenlektionen in German. She was also featured on the Animal Planet Series Must Love Cats.
In honor of Tama, the Wakayama Electric Railway introduced a new train customized with cartoon art of Tama. Later, the Kishi Station building was rebuilt to resemble the face of a cat.
By hirorin0505 (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Tama gained an official apprentice in 2012. This apprentice, named Nitama, took over the job upon Tama’s passing in 2015.
Tama was honored by thousands of fans at her funeral and given the title “Honorary Eternal Stationmaster.” She is enshrined at a nearby Shinto shrine as goddess Tama Daimyojin.
