Tama, the Japanese cat that was worldwide known as the ‘stationmaster’ cat, died last Monday at the age of 16. Tama became famous in 2007 when she got appointed for stationmaster of the Kishigawa railway line. She wore custom-made stationmaster’s cap and a jacket and became an instant hit.
Her fame brought lots of tourists to the station and that prevented the railway line from bankruptcy. 55.000 people a year came to see the fury stationmaster and during the first year the railway line managed to cash in 10.4 million dollars thanks to Tama.
Tama died from heart failure and thousands of people attended the funeral.
Mitsunobu Kojima, the president of the Wakayama Electric Railway even gave a speech at Tama’s funeral.
“But she was really doing her job. Tama-chan really emerged like a savior, a goddess. It was truly my honor to have been able to work with her”, said Kojima.
Tama will be succeeded by another cat, Nitama, who will replace the role of “stationmaster” in future.
