Felines help soothe frazzled Japanese workers

WORKAHOLIC Japan is known for long office hours and stressed-out employees, but one company claims to have a cure: cats.

A total of nine felines eat, sleep and walk freely around the small office of IT firm Ferray in Tokyo.

Hidenobu Fukuda, who heads the company, introduced an “office cat” policy in 2000 after an employee asked that staffers be allowed to bring their moggies to work.

“I also give ¥5 000 [about R580] a month to those who rescue a cat,” he said of his charges.

Other Japanese companies are also allowing animals in the office to help reduce stress and anxiety.

At Oracle Japan, an old English sheepdog named Candy works as a “greeting and healing ambassador”.

The company has had an office dog since 1991, and Candy, the fourth one, now has Twitter and Instagram accounts.

Meanwhile, Pasona Group “hired” two goats in 2011 and two alpacas in 2013 as full-time employees, partly for healing purposes.

Eri Ito, who works at Ferray, says she is sold on the animals’ soothing ways. “Cats are sleeping just beside us . . . It’s healing.”

But there is a downside to having felines in the office, Fukuda admitted. “Sometimes a cat will walk on a phone and cut off the call, or they shut down the computers by walking on to the off switch,” he said. — AFP