Why Indoors Only

It can be heartbreaking when a cat you love does not come home, and we have great sympathy for that terrible feeling of loss. We know that people who allow their cats to roam are often simply trying to give them the life they think is best. We’d like to kindly suggest that the risks for this type of life in Japan may not be worth any possible benefits.

While there are laws regarding animal cruelty in Japan, these are rarely enforced. We regularly hear about numerous cases of poisoning, relocation, and other forms of eliminating cats by those who are unhappy about the cats entering their gardens or properties. Mental health can also be a problematic issue, and friendly outdoor roaming cats can be easy targets.

If your cat is intentionally harmed in Japan, there may be little recourse. Since the Japanese authorities tell you to keep your cats indoors, if you don’t follow this direction, their general outlook tends to be that resulting issues are not their problem. In addition, despite previous evidence to the contrary, there’s still a lagging acceptance of animal cruelty being dangerous to the community as a whole. Finally, there’s not a high enough level of spay neuter compliance, resulting in too many stray cats living on the streets. This can lead to frustrated people taking matters into their own hands and the frustrated authorities turning a blind eye.

Even if you feel confident that nobody currently living in your neighborhood would ever intentionally harm cats, there will always be other people coming/going and other serious risks for cats who roam outdoors. These risks might be traffic on narrow streets with poor visibility; a high prevalence of Feline Aids or Leukemia; and commonly left open buildings, where cats can accidentally be trapped.

There’s little choice regarding cats not acclimated to living with humans. These cats should still be spayed/neutered and returned as Community Cats. However, this doesn’t have to be the case for cats who can spend any amount of time living happily indoors.

It can be tough at first to re-acclimatize a previously indoor/outdoor cat to an entirely indoors lifestyle. But, they do eventually adjust and live very happy lives with the people they love. The issue that often gets in the way of the adjustment process is our human perception—we think the cats’ perceptions on the matter are similar to our own, and that they must really be suffering to be so limited. We add that stress and sadness to the process, which doesn’t help. We need to adjust the narrative in our minds. We place reasonable limits on human children in order to protect them from harm. Children don’t always respond positively to those limits, at first, but we get through it because we love them and we know that those limitations help to protect them. Limiting cats to their own suitable version of a protected lifestyle is equally reasonable.

Yes, cats enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. But, you can still give them that with metal grates on windows, enclosed balconies, and/or outdoor enclosures. They enjoy playing. You can give them that too, with toys, towers, pots of green grass, and other enriching additions to their living environment. They are creatures of habit and will of course need to adjust to any kind of change in lifestyle. But with consistency, comfort, and added enrichment, they can eventually be absolutely happy. The security of knowing that you are preventing unnecessary harm can make you happier, as well. If able, a catio can take things to another level. The cost of building even a small outdoor enclosure, that you can enjoy along with your cats, is well worth the peace of mind.