Animal Welfare Policy How we raise our meerkats, and what we will not promise

Published 18 September 2026 ／ Meerkat Cafe googoo, Kichijoji, Tokyo

Animal handling business registration 23-Tokyo-To-Ten-No.103430 (display) and 24-Tokyo-To-Han-No.103430 (sale), Tokyo Metropolitan Government. 日本語版はこちら

We opened in October 2023 as Japan's first cafe devoted only to meerkats (our own research). Since then we have lived with more than 50 meerkats and sent 23 of them on to new families. What follows is what those years taught us.

Animal cafes and pet retail in Japan have been criticised on welfare grounds, including in a WWF Japan report published in October 2025. We do not publish this policy to criticise the industry. We publish it because a visitor, or a tour operator, is entitled to know exactly how the animals are kept before deciding to come.

Three principles

1. They live as a group

In the wild, the meerkat (Suricata suricatta) lives in a group called a mob, typically 10 to 40 animals. It is an intensely social species. Siblings and older animals are how a young meerkat learns its own species' behaviour, its communication, and its place in the order.

Our meerkats live as a group (the composition changes over time). A young animal joining us grows up inside that group and learns from the older ones. This is fundamentally different from raising each animal separately.

A meerkat is not an animal that lives alone. Social skill grows inside the group first; a healthy relationship with people is built on top of that.

2. They are taught boundaries

Indulging an animal because it is cute teaches it nothing, and the result is biting and other behaviour problems. That is bad for the person, and worse for the animal.

From a young age we teach a clear line between what is allowed and what is not, through daily handling. This is not severity. It is what lets an animal live calmly among people.

3. They meet many people early

Socialisation in the first months (roughly three to six months of age) is decisive. An animal that meets only a handful of people in that window grows up wary of strangers, and that wariness comes out later as biting or bolting.

Our meerkats meet a wide range of visitors every day from an early age — different ages, voices, clothing. The result is an animal that is at ease with people in general.

Veterinary care

We work with Triton Animal Hospital in Taito, Tokyo, which treats dogs, cats, rabbits, ferrets and other small mammals including exotic animals. It has an operating theatre, diagnostic equipment and an ICU, and works with secondary hospitals for serious cases. If an animal shows something wrong, it is seen by a vet experienced with the species without delay.

The same arrangement applies to animals staying with us in our boarding service, for the whole stay.

Hygiene in the shop

• Hand sanitising on arrival
• Hand washing before and after contact
• Regular cleaning and disinfection of the contact area
• We ask guests who are unwell not to visit
• No outside food during contact, for allergy and dietary safety

Rest and workload

So that the animals are not worn down, these are our operating standards:

• Indoor temperature held at 25-28°C to reduce temperature stress
• Contact time managed per animal — staff watch each one and give it a break when it needs one
• Animals are rotated, and rest time outside opening hours is protected
• Daily health observation and written records by the store manager

We deliberately do not publish a fixed number of minutes per animal per day. The right figure is the one the animal shows us that day, and a fixed promise would push us to keep an animal out when it should be resting.

We say no to some rehomings

We sometimes decide not to let an animal go to a particular home. We may decline when:

• the characteristics of the species are not fully understood
• the home environment — temperature, space, company — is not ready
• the animal would be left alone for long periods, so social contact would not continue
• lifelong care is not yet a settled decision

This is not about turning customers away. It is about the animal's whole life.

Registration

• Type 1 Animal Handling Business registration: 23-Tokyo-To-Ten-No.103430 (display) and 24-Tokyo-To-Han-No.103430 (sale)
• Registered animal handling supervisor: Ai Shoji (also store manager)
• Address: 3F Daisho Kichijoji Building, 1-5-4 Kichijoji Minamicho, Musashino, Tokyo 180-0003
• Partner hospital: an exotic-animal veterinary practice, with emergency cover arranged

For tour operators and media

If you are considering listing us, the three things operators usually ask about are above: group living, operations that change with the animal's condition on the day, and what we will not promise. Please write to us in English if you need anything else in writing — we would rather answer a hard question before a booking than after one.