Tashirojima was, and is, an island sustained by the fishing industry. The beloved silk-saving cats began to approach fishermen for food, and the workers' obliging response drew swarms of kitties ...

Feeling sorry for the injury, the islanders built the shrine for cats. Tourists watch cats getting fed at a cafe on Tashirojima island in Ishinomaki, northeast of Japan, May 18, 2024.

On the island of Tashirojima, the cats outnumber people, and the people like it that way. It’s no accident that the cats who inhabit Tashirojima, or what has become known as “Cat Island,” in ...

ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi -- Here kitty, kitty! Visitors to Tashirojima Island here will have no trouble finding the fluffy winter coats of the feline inhabi ...

Tashirojima Island (also known in English as Tashiro Island) is part of Ishinomaki City in Miyagi Prefecture. Just 45 minutes by ferry from Ishinomaki, Tashirojima Island is a tiny island, at just ...

Tashirojima is part of the city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture in the Tohoku region, which became well known after a tsunami devastated the area following a massive magnitude 9 earthquake on ...

TASHIROJIMA, Japan (AP) -- On a small island off Japan's northeastern coast, visitors make offerings at a shrine for unlikely local guardians: cats.