What’s the most cost-effective economic growth-boosting intervention? It’s cat mascots. I just learned about Tama the calico cat (via @thatgoodnewsgirl on Instagram), who “gained fame for being a railway station master and operating officer at Kishi Station on the Kishigawa Line in Kinokawa, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan”.
Tama was born in Kinokawa, Wakayama, and was raised with a group of stray cats that used to live close to Kishi Station. They were regularly fed by passengers and by Toshiko Koyama, the informal station manager at the time.
The station was near closure in 2004 because of financial problems on the rail line. Around this time, Koyama adopted Tama. Eventually the decision to close the station was withdrawn after the citizens demanded that it stay open.[3] In April 2006, the newly formed Wakayama Electric Railway destaffed all stations on the Kishigawa Line to cut costs, and at the same time evicted the stray cats from their shelter to make way for new roads leading to the stations. Koyama pleaded with Mitsunobu Kojima, president of Wakayama Electric Railway, to allow the cats to live inside Kishi Station; Kojima, seeing Tama as a maneki-neko (beckoning cat), agreed to the request.[4] …
In lieu of an annual salary, the railway provided Tama with a year’s worth of cat food and a gold name tag for her collar stating her name and position. A station master’s hat was specially designed and made to fit Tama, and took more than six months to complete.[6] In July 2008, a summer hat was also issued to Tama for hotter weather.[7] Tama’s original gold name tag was stolen by a visitor on October 10, 2007, but a replica was quickly made to replace it.[8]
The publicity from Tama’s appointment led to an increase in passengers by 17% for that month as compared to January 2006; ridership statistics for March 2007 showed a 10% increase over the previous financial year. A study estimated that the publicity surrounding Tama has contributed 1.1 billion yen to the local economy.[9]
That’s actually lowballing Tama. If you click on footnote 9, it’s ¥1.38 billion ($13.1 million at the exchange rate back then):
With 55,000 more people having used the Kishigawa Line than would normally be expected, Tama is being credited with a contribution to the local economy calculated to have reached as much as 1.1 billion yen (10.44 million dollars) in 2007 alone, according to a study announced last week.
Katsuhiro Miyamoto, a professor at Kansai University’s School of Accountancy, said picture books and other merchandise featuring the feline stationmaster also produced significant economic effects. A television appearance and other publicity surrounding Tama—who receives cat food in lieu of a salary—was worth 280 million yen, according to Miyamoto.
In contrast, Tama was really cheap. Gemini 2.5 Pro helpfully estimated the following cost breakdown, which adds up to a median of ¥110,000:
A year’s supply of food probably cost ¥30,000 - ¥60,000
Vet care could range from ¥30,000 - ¥70,000 annually to cover everything from routine check-ups to vaccinations, flea/tick prevention, and potential unexpected health issues
Her promotion to “super station master” (superintendent equivalent) came with an office (a converted ticket booth containing a litter box) estimated at ¥50,000 - ¥110,000, amortised over Tama’s nearly decade-long career
Tama’s two custom-made hats (summer and other seasons) weren’t cheap, probably ¥10,000 - ¥30,000 each, but worth including in the compensation package to retain top talent
In contrast her two gold-plated name tags (the first was stolen by a visitor) likely weren’t as expensive, ¥2,000 - ¥5,000
This works out to almost exactly 10,000:1 benefit-cost ratio just from increased ridership, and that’s excluding merchandise, TV appearance and other publicity etc — well beyond even Open Phil’s higher-than-ever 2,100x bar!
In fact, a few hundred thousand Tamas would already double global economic growth, and the world’s Tama-carrying capacity is probably 3-4 OOMs higher at least (the World Population Review’s estimate of over a billion cats worldwide today should be interpreted as a lower bound). Talk about feline-powered explosive economic growth potential…
A few thoughts. First, it is a really cute story, and I’m glad you shared it. It feels very Japanese.
Second, marketing and tourism aren’t often considered as major areas for economic development and growth (at least not in the popular press books I’ve read or the EA circles I’ve been in), but this is a simple little case study to demonstrate that having a mascot (or anything else that people like, from fancy buildings to locations tied to things people like) can drive economic activity. But it is also hard to predict in advance what will be a hit. I bet that lots of places have beautiful murals, cute animals, historical importance, lovely scenery, and similar attractions without having much of a positive return on investment. For me, the notable think about Tama’s story is how little money was needed to add something special to the local station. A lot of investments related to tourism are far more expensive.
A final thought, one that maybe folks more versed in economics can help me with. Should we consider this an example of economic growth? Is this just shifting spending/consumption from one place to another? Would people who spent money to ride this train otherwise would have spent that money doing something else: riding a different train, visiting a park, etc.
Cats’ economic growth potential likely has a heavy-tailed distribution, because how else would cats knock things off shelves with their tail. As such, Open Philanthropy needs to be aware that some cats, like Tama, make much better mascots than other cats. One option would be to follow a hits-based strategy: give a bunch of areas cat mascots, and see which ones do the best. However, given the presence of animal welfare in the EA movement, hitting cats is likely to attract controversy. A better strategy would be to identify cats that already have proven economic growth potential and relocate them to areas most in need of economic growth. Tama makes up 0.00000255995% of Japan’s nominal GDP (or something thereabouts, I’m assuming all Tama-related benefits to GDP occurred in the year 2020). If these benefits had occurred in North Korea, they would be 0.00086320506% of nominal GDP or thereabouts. North Korea is also poorer, so adding more money to its economy goes further. Japan and North Korea are near each other, so transporting Tama to North Korea would be extremely cheap. Assuming Tama’s benefits are the same each year and are independent of location (which seems reasonable, I asked ChatGPT for an image of Tama in North Korea and it is still cute), catnapping Tama would be highly effective. One concern is that there might be downside risk, because people morally disapprove of kidnapping cats. On the other hand, people expressing moral disapproval of kidnapping cats are probably more likely to respect animal’s boundaries by not eating meat, thus making this an intervention that spans cause areas. In conclusion: EA is solved, all we have to do is kidnap some cats.
What’s the most cost-effective economic growth-boosting intervention? It’s cat mascots. I just learned about Tama the calico cat (via @thatgoodnewsgirl on Instagram), who “gained fame for being a railway station master and operating officer at Kishi Station on the Kishigawa Line in Kinokawa, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan”.
The career section of her Wikipedia page astounded me:
That’s actually lowballing Tama. If you click on footnote 9, it’s ¥1.38 billion ($13.1 million at the exchange rate back then):
In contrast, Tama was really cheap. Gemini 2.5 Pro helpfully estimated the following cost breakdown, which adds up to a median of ¥110,000:
A year’s supply of food probably cost ¥30,000 - ¥60,000
Vet care could range from ¥30,000 - ¥70,000 annually to cover everything from routine check-ups to vaccinations, flea/tick prevention, and potential unexpected health issues
Litter, bedding, toys, and grooming supplies probably cost ¥10,000 - ¥20,000
Her promotion to “super station master” (superintendent equivalent) came with an office (a converted ticket booth containing a litter box) estimated at ¥50,000 - ¥110,000, amortised over Tama’s nearly decade-long career
Tama’s two custom-made hats (summer and other seasons) weren’t cheap, probably ¥10,000 - ¥30,000 each, but worth including in the compensation package to retain top talent
In contrast her two gold-plated name tags (the first was stolen by a visitor) likely weren’t as expensive, ¥2,000 - ¥5,000
This works out to almost exactly 10,000:1 benefit-cost ratio just from increased ridership, and that’s excluding merchandise, TV appearance and other publicity etc — well beyond even Open Phil’s higher-than-ever 2,100x bar!
In fact, a few hundred thousand Tamas would already double global economic growth, and the world’s Tama-carrying capacity is probably 3-4 OOMs higher at least (the World Population Review’s estimate of over a billion cats worldwide today should be interpreted as a lower bound). Talk about feline-powered explosive economic growth potential…
Tama’s office
A few thoughts. First, it is a really cute story, and I’m glad you shared it. It feels very Japanese.
Second, marketing and tourism aren’t often considered as major areas for economic development and growth (at least not in the popular press books I’ve read or the EA circles I’ve been in), but this is a simple little case study to demonstrate that having a mascot (or anything else that people like, from fancy buildings to locations tied to things people like) can drive economic activity. But it is also hard to predict in advance what will be a hit. I bet that lots of places have beautiful murals, cute animals, historical importance, lovely scenery, and similar attractions without having much of a positive return on investment. For me, the notable think about Tama’s story is how little money was needed to add something special to the local station. A lot of investments related to tourism are far more expensive.
A final thought, one that maybe folks more versed in economics can help me with. Should we consider this an example of economic growth? Is this just shifting spending/consumption from one place to another? Would people who spent money to ride this train otherwise would have spent that money doing something else: riding a different train, visiting a park, etc.
Cats’ economic growth potential likely has a heavy-tailed distribution, because how else would cats knock things off shelves with their tail. As such, Open Philanthropy needs to be aware that some cats, like Tama, make much better mascots than other cats. One option would be to follow a hits-based strategy: give a bunch of areas cat mascots, and see which ones do the best. However, given the presence of animal welfare in the EA movement, hitting cats is likely to attract controversy. A better strategy would be to identify cats that already have proven economic growth potential and relocate them to areas most in need of economic growth. Tama makes up 0.00000255995% of Japan’s nominal GDP (or something thereabouts, I’m assuming all Tama-related benefits to GDP occurred in the year 2020). If these benefits had occurred in North Korea, they would be 0.00086320506% of nominal GDP or thereabouts. North Korea is also poorer, so adding more money to its economy goes further. Japan and North Korea are near each other, so transporting Tama to North Korea would be extremely cheap. Assuming Tama’s benefits are the same each year and are independent of location (which seems reasonable, I asked ChatGPT for an image of Tama in North Korea and it is still cute), catnapping Tama would be highly effective. One concern is that there might be downside risk, because people morally disapprove of kidnapping cats. On the other hand, people expressing moral disapproval of kidnapping cats are probably more likely to respect animal’s boundaries by not eating meat, thus making this an intervention that spans cause areas. In conclusion: EA is solved, all we have to do is kidnap some cats.
I love that there is a disagree react: “hmm… no, seems like the most cost-effective economic growth boosting intervention is not in fact cat mascots”
I would imagine there are some replicability issues…
Love the post 🤩