Tama, The Station Master!
April 29, 1999 - June 22, 2015
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tama (たま) was born on April 29, 1999 in Kinokawa, Wakayama Prefecture located in the Kansai region of Honshu, Japan. Female Calico Cat Tama begin her life on the streets close to Kishi Station. Passengers of the station were known to feed Tama as well as other strays in the area.
After some time Toshiko Koyama, the informal station manager adopted Tama around 2004. meanwhile the station had fallen into hard times facing the possiblity of closure. Shutdown was avoided by mass demand by local citizans. Other executive decisions were made to balaence the books suck as destaffing stations, evicting strays, and building roads.
Koyama advocated for all our feline friends building a case with Tama as the PR face for the station. President of WER (Wakayama Electric Railway) Mitsunobu Kojima agreed to request and allowed cats to live in the station. Tama being regarded as maneki-neko "beckoning cat" station officals formally awarded Tama with the title of Station Master. Tama's job was to greet passengers.
Annual salary of a year's worth of cat was the result after the new hire negotiations. Uniform was provided in the form of a gold name tag for her collar with name and postion, as well as a specially designed hat. On October 10, 2007 her gold name tag was stolen by a visitor. I am sure Tama was stressed from the incident and fortunately a replacment was quickly provided.
Passengers increased by 17% from the publicity of Tama's employment status that month which was only the begineing. A study estimated that the publicity surrounding Tama has contributed 1.1 billion yen to the local economy. Tama is often cited as part of a phenomenon known in Japan as "Nekonomics" (ネコノミクス, nekonomikusu, lit., "cat economy"), a play off the term Abenomics. "Nekonomics" refers to the positive economic impact of having a cat mascot.
On December 5, 2007, Tama was recognized as the grand prize winner of the railway's "Top Station Runner Award". The year-end bonus was modified to a special cat toy and a celebratory slice of crab, which Tama was fed by the company president.
On January 5, 2008, Tama was promoted to "super station master" (a title equivalent to Superintendent rank) in a ceremony attended by the president of the company, the mayor, and approximately 300 spectators. As a result of her promotion, she was "the only female in a managerial position" in the company. Her new position had an "office" — a converted ticket booth containing a litter box. Her gold name tag was modified to a gold tag with a blue background with an added "S" for "super".
On October 28, 2008, Tama was knighted and awarded the title of "Wakayama de Knight" (a pun on "It's got to be Wakayama" in Japanese) by the prefectural governor, Yoshinobu Nisaka, for her work in promoting local tourism.
In early 2009, the Wakayama Electric Railway introduced a new "Tama train" (たま電車, Tama densha) train on the line which was customized with cartoon depictions of Tama.
In January 2010, railway officials promoted Tama to the post of "Operating Officer" in recognition of her contribution to expanding the customer base. Tama maintained the station master's job while taking over the new job, and was the first cat to become an executive of a railroad corporation.
Her staff consisted of two feline assistant stationmasters: Tama's sister, Chibi (ちび, born May 12, 2000), and Tama's mother, an orange tabby cat named Miiko (ミーコ, October 3, 1998 – July 20, 2009)
In August 2010, in honor of Tama's third year as stationmaster, the station building at Kishi was rebuilt with a new structure resembling a cat's face. Both the "Tama train" refurbishment and station rebuilding projects were overseen by industrial designer Eiji Mitooka.
On January 6, 2011, Tama's fourth year as stationmaster was celebrated with a ceremony and her promotion to "Managing Executive Officer", third in line in management after the company president and the managing director.
On January 5, 2013, at the ceremony celebrating her sixth year as stationmaster, Tama was elevated to Honorary President of Wakayama Electric Rail for life. In April 2013, it was announced that due to Tama's increasing age, her work hours would be reduced and she would only be on view in the station office Tuesday through Friday, a reduction of two days from her original Monday through Saturday hours.
Tama died on June 22, 2015, at the age of 16, of apparent heart failure at an animal hospital in Wakayama Prefecture.[18] After her passing, thousands of her fans from all over Japan came to pay their respects. She was honored with a Shinto-style funeral at the station and was given the posthumous title "Honorary Eternal Stationmaster".
She was enshrined at a nearby Shinto cat shrine as spirit goddess Tama Daimyōjin (たま大明神) on August 11, 2015.[19] The "Tama train" was redecorated for mourning and the first ceremonial passengers were children from a local nursery school.