A train station in rural Japan gets fewer than 10 passengers a day. The railway was about to shut it down. Then they made a cat the stationmaster. Annual visitors went from hundreds to 180,000.
Kishi Station sits at the end of a single-track railway line in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan.
By 2006, the Wakayama Electric Railway was losing money every year. Ridership on the Kishigawa Line had been declining for decades as younger residents left for cities. The local government was considering shutting the entire line down. It was not economically viable to keep running.
The station had a stationmaster problem too. Budget cuts meant they could no longer staff Kishi Station with a human employee.
The solution they found has no business working. But it did.
A cat named Tama had been living near the station, fed by a local shopkeeper named Toshiko Koyama. The railway's new operating company, rather than close the station, appointed Tama as official stationmaster.
She received a stationmaster's hat. A business card. An official salary paid in cat food.
Her job was to sit at the station.
That was it. Just sit there.
In the first year after Tama's appointment in 2007, the Kishigawa Line saw a 17 percent increase in ridership. Visitors began traveling specifically to Kishi Station to see her. A dedicated Tama train was designed, decorated entirely with cat illustrations. A Tama museum opened. A Tama café followed.
The Wakayama Electric Railway estimated that Tama generated approximately 1.1 billion yen in economic impact for the Wakayama region in a single year.
Tama passed away in June 2015. She was given a Shinto funeral attended by 3,000 people. She was posthumously elevated to the rank of Honorary Eternal Stationmaster.
Her successor, Nitama, held the role after her. The station is still open.
The railway that was about to be shut down because no one was riding it was saved because a cat decided to sit in one place consistently.
Most corporate turnaround strategies cost millions. This one cost cat food.