Tama (cat) occupation railway worker
Tama (Japanese: たま, April 29, 1999 – June 22, 2015) was a female calico cat who gained fame for being a station master and operating officer at Kishi Station on the Kishigawa Line in Kinokawa, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan.Career
The station was near closure in 2004 because of financial problems on the rail line. Around this time, Koyama adopted Tama. Eventually the decision to close the station was withdrawn after the citizens demanded it to stay open. In April 2006, the newly-formed Wakayama Electric Railway destaffed all stations on the Kishigawa Line to cut costs, and at the same time evicted the stray cats from their shelter to make way for new roads leading to the stations. Koyama pleaded with Mitsunobu Kojima, president of Wakayama Electric Railway, to allow the cats to live inside Kishi Station; Kojima, seeing Tama as a maneki-neko (beckoning cat), agreed to the request.On January 5 2007, railway officials officially awarded Tama the title of station master. As station master, her primary duty was to greet passengers.
In lieu of an annual salary, the railway provided Tama with a year's worth of cat food and a gold name tag for her collar stating her name and position. A station master's hat was specially designed and made to fit Tama, and took more than six months to complete. In July 2008, a summer hat was also issued to Tama for hotter weather. Tama's original gold name tag was stolen by a visitor on October 10 2007, but a replica was quickly made to replace it.The publicity from Tama's appointment led to an increase in passengers by 17% for that month as compared to January 2006; ridership statistics for March 2007 showed a 10% increase over the previous financial year. A study estimated that the publicity surrounding Tama has contributed 1.1 billion yen to the local economy. Tama is often cited as part of a phenomenon known in Japan as "Nekonomics" (ネコノミクス, nekonomikusu, lit., "cat economy"), a play off the term Abenomics. "Nekonomics" refers to the positive economic impact of having a cat mascot.On December 5 2007, Tama was recognized as the grand prize winner of the railway's "Top Station Runner Award". The year-end bonus was modified to a special cat toy and a celebratory slice of crab, which Tama was fed by the company president.Successors
Nitama
On January 5, 2012, Tama's official apprentice, named "Nitama" ("Second Tama") was revealed. Born in Okayama City in 2010, Nitama was rescued from under a train car and adopted by Okayama Electric Tramway. Nitama trained at Idakiso Station (five stops away on the same line as Kishi Station) before being chosen as Tama's apprentice.
Nitama is a medium-hair calico cat and is easily distinguished from both Tama and Yontama in pictures by her coat length. She is often drawn as endearingly fluffy on promotional materials.
After Tama's enshrinement in August 2015, Nitama was taken to the shrine to pay her respects and then formally installed as the new stationmaster.Sun-tama-tama
"Sun-tama-tama" (a pun on "Santama", lit. "third Tama") was a calico cat sent for training in Okayama. Sun-tama-tama was considered as a candidate for Tama's successor, but the Okayama Public Relations representative who had been caring for Sun-tama-tama refused to give the cat up, writing, "I will not let go of this child, she will stay in Okayama."As of September 2018, Sun-tama-tama is working as the stationmaster in Naka-ku, Okayama and appears occasionally on Tama's Twitter account.
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