Hello Kitty, how the cat is already surpassing the horse in the land of the rising sun

While much of Asia celebrated the Year of the Horse this week, Japan once again asserted its cultural distinctiveness by turning its attention to a completely different animal.

In the Japanese archipelago, where the Lunar New Year is not an official holiday, instead following the Gregorian calendar, media and public attention focused on Cat Day (Neko no Hi) this Sunday, February 22nd.

While the cat is conspicuously absent from the Chinese zodiac—legend has it that the rat cunningly ousted it from the celestial race—Japan established a celebration in the late 1980s that more than makes up for this historical oversight.

The choice of the date 2/22 is no accident: in Japanese, the number two is pronounced « ni, » and the repetition « ni-ni-ni » evokes, through onomatopoeia, « nyan-nyan-nyan, » the national meow of the feline.

This day, launched by the Japan Pet Food Association, is part of a Japanese tradition of commemorative days based on numerical wordplay, such as Good Couples Day on November 22nd or the highly anticipated Mayonnaise Day on March 1st.

At the heart of this feline fervor sits the global icon Hello Kitty, one of the country’s most lucrative exports, even though her status as a cat remains a subject of heated debate between Sanrio purists and the general public.

This love for cats extends to the highest levels of government: the current imperial family shares their daily life with two adopted cats, Mimi and Seven, although the legendary discretion surrounding the Emperor’s private life limits their public appearances to the realm of urban legend.

Between cat cafes, dedicated sanctuaries and ubiquitous derivative products, Japan proves on this February 22nd that while the horse gallops in the rest of Asia, it is indeed the cat that reigns supreme in the hearts of the Japanese.