Japan is home to roughly 142 animal cafes, part of a global industry exceeding 1,000 facilities worldwide. While cat and dog cafes dominate the market, a growing number of "exotic" cafes feature owls, hedgehogs, otters, reptiles, and other non-domesticated species. In 2025, the first large-scale scientific assessment of these exotic cafes was published, and its findings demand attention from anyone planning a visit.
The Study
Published in the Journal of Veterinary Medical Science, the research was a collaboration between Wild Welfare (a UK-based animal welfare organization), Nippon Life Sciences University (Tokyo), and Nottingham Trent University. Four trained assessors visited 79 exotic animal cafes across Japan using standardized welfare metrics, evaluating a total of 231 animals across all facilities.
The animal breakdown: 51% mammals (hedgehogs, otters, rabbits, sugar gliders), 31% birds (owls, parrots, hawks), and 18% reptiles (snakes, lizards, turtles). Each animal was scored across categories including environment, nutrition, health, behavior, and human interaction protocols.
Key Findings
The study's central conclusion was blunt: researchers documented a "widespread lack of appropriate animal care provision across all facilities" assessed. No category of cafe scored well overall, though some performed worse than others.
Birds scored the lowest across environmental provisions, nutritional adequacy, and ability to express natural behavior. Owls were a particular concern. As nocturnal predators, they are biologically wired for nighttime activity, yet cafes operate during daytime hours. Many owls were tethered with short chains to perching blocks, unable to fly, turn freely, or retreat from visitors. This violates multiple aspects of the Five Freedoms framework that underpins modern animal welfare science.
Hedgehogs presented a different but equally concerning pattern. These animals are both nocturnal and solitary by nature. In cafes, they were routinely kept in groups inside glass tanks under bright lighting, then handled repeatedly by visitors throughout the day. The combination of forced sociality, daytime disruption, and constant human contact runs counter to nearly every known behavioral need of the species.
The Five Freedoms Breakdown
The study mapped its findings against the internationally recognized Five Freedoms framework. The most severe violations clustered around:
- Freedom 4 (Freedom to express normal behavior): Animals lacked space, environmental complexity, and the ability to choose whether to interact with humans. This was the single worst-performing category across all cafes.
- Freedom 5 (Freedom from fear and distress): Tethering, forced handling, crowd noise, and lack of retreat spaces created chronic stress conditions.
Freedoms 1-3 (hunger/thirst, discomfort, pain/disease) were generally better addressed, though not uniformly. A separate study by WWF Japan and Hokkaido University found bacterial contamination in some facilities: E. coli was detected in 4 out of 25 cafes tested, and Salmonella in 2 out of 25, raising concerns about both animal and visitor health.
What This Means for Visitors
The study draws a clear line between two fundamentally different models operating under the same "animal cafe" label.
Exotic animal cafes keep non-domesticated species in commercial settings for visitor entertainment. The 2025 study suggests that current practices across Japan's exotic cafe industry fail to meet basic welfare standards for most species involved.
Rescue cat and dog cafes operate on a fundamentally different premise. They house domestic species that have been bred for human companionship over thousands of years, typically provide retreat spaces where animals can avoid interaction, and run adoption programs that give rescued animals permanent homes. The welfare concerns documented in the 2025 study do not apply equally to these facilities.
Regulatory Outlook
Japan's Animal Welfare and Management Law (AWML) is scheduled for its next revision in June 2026. Animal welfare advocates see this as a critical window to introduce specific regulations for exotic animal cafes, which currently operate under the same broad licensing framework as pet shops and breeding facilities.
Whether the 2025 study's findings translate into regulatory change remains to be seen. For now, the science offers visitors clear information to make their own choices.
For practical guidance on choosing responsible cafes, read our ethical animal cafe guide. For a full breakdown of current and proposed regulations, see our 2026 animal cafe regulations overview.