Cat cafes in Tokyo told to shut down early for 'welfare of all pets'

London, June 2 (ANI): Staff members at Tokyo's latest trendy cat cafes left work early on Friday evening after a new ordinance went into effect requiring the nightspots to close their doors at 10 pm.

The curfew is among revisions to the Animal Protection Law and designed to safeguard the welfare of all pets, but was particularly targeted at stores in busy entertainment districts that have been doing a roaring late-night trade in cute puppies and kittens among people who have had too much to drink.

Authorities have found that when they wake up in the morning, the new pet owners do not see the puppy chewing their shoes in quite the same light.

Equally, it was feared that keeping animals in confined spaces and under bright lights late at night could affect the health of the creatures.

The terms of the law mean, however, that cat cafes are similarly not permitted to allow customers to stroke and play with their furry staff after 10 pm.

Japanese homes are notoriously small and many rented apartments do not allow tenants to have pets, so cat cafes have sprung up alongside bars, karaoke joints and strip clubs as a new form of urban entertainment.

The first one reportedly opened in Osaka in 2004 but the concept quickly took and there an estimated 150 in cities across the country. Children are not permitted in most cafes because they might harm the animals.

For around Y1,500 (Pounds12.56) an hour, customers can sit in a room amid cats that are eating, chasing stuffed mice or simply laying around.

Cat cafes have been compared to a more traditional form of late-night entertainment in Tokyo, with owners identifying the animals by name, giving them a profile and customers identifying their favourite creature - in much the same way as patrons of hostess clubs have a preferred woman to wait on them.

Operators of the cafes say the curfew on displaying animals is misguided as cats are by nature nocturnal creatures.

"They sleep when they want to and they play when they want to," the Telegraph quoted Norimasa Hanada, the owner of the Neko no Iru Kyukeijo 299 cat cafe in the Ikebukuro district of Tokyo, as saying.

"It makes absolutely no sense to limit the time," he added. (ANI)