Tokyo

A loss-making Japanese rail company has found the perfect mascot to bring back business - Tama the tortoiseshell cat.

All the nine-year-old cat does is sit by the entrance of Kishi station in a railway uniform cap and pose for photos for the tourists. Tama has done such a good job of raising revenue for the Kishikawa train line that she was recently promoted to “super-station-master”.

The Wakayama Electric Railway Co said: “She is the perfect station master. She never complains, even though passengers touch her all over. She has patience and charisma.”

Appointing a cat to turn around fortunes makes cultural sense in Japan, where cats are believed to bring in business. People are snatching up postcards, notebooks and badges decorated with Tama's picture. There is even a ¥1,365 (£6.65) book of photographs called Diary of Tama, the Station Master.

The Kishikawa line had been losing ¥500 million a year. Since Tama's appointment last year, passenger numbers have risen 10 per cent. Tama has been rewarded with a bonus - all in cat food. (AP)

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