When we traveled to Japan we were amazed about how many random cats there were wandering around the streets, public parks etc. Didn't know this was something you would encounter in Greece. We tried to find the story of why there were so many cats in Japan but didn't find an explanation :-)
Why so many cats? It's related to fishing and shipping. Recently there were many rats on the boards of ships, so sailors took cats to kill rats that would have chewed everything, damaging the valuable goods.
I've heard about a Japanese island, full of cats :) another, with bunnies - also in Japan...
And another Japanese island with foxes :)
Japan is a country of oddities :)))