From Iyashi to Injustice: Japanese Animal Cafes and the Ethics of Tourist-Animal Encounters
Author
Hansen, Rebecca Krüger
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2026
Abstract
This thesis explores Japanese animal cafés using David A. Fennell’s tourism and animal ethics framework to assess how tourist–animal encounters in captivity can be made more just for the animals involved. Employing a qualitative, multi-method design, the study combines document analysis, theoretical application, and user-generated content analysis of 55 Google and Reddit reviews from five exotic animal cafés in Tokyo with semi-structured expert interviews involving an animal welfare and tourism specialist and the founder of a rescue shelter café in Osaka. The analysis identifies a stark divide between positive and negative tourist reviews of the same venues, highlighting widespread welfare illiteracy: positive visitors often read owl stillness as calm and café cleanliness as good care, while negative reviewers report tethering, lack of space, disruption of nocturnal animals, stereotypic behaviours, and staff actively overriding animal dissent. The thesis develops the concept of banal captivity as an extension of Fennell’s dark tourism prototype to show how animal suffering is normalised and rendered invisible within everyday leisure and consumption practices. Applying Fennell and Sheppard’s scales of justice model, exotic animal cafés are located in the category of no justice, characterised by the instrumental use of animals as profit-generating commodities, systematic denial of species-typical behaviours, and suppression of animal dissent, including through discounts for positive reviews that corrupt feedback mechanisms. In contrast, the rescue shelter café analysed in the study shows movement toward intermediate justice via individualised animal monitoring, mandatory visitor education, respect for animal consent, diversified funding, and an adoption-centred operational model. The thesis concludes that sustainable tourism certification and structured visitor education—through pre-visit orientation, mandatory facility tours, and accreditation schemes inspired by zoo certifications—offer theoretically grounded pathways to improvement, but that for exotic cafés keeping wild-caught or captive-bred threatened species, evidence of links to wildlife trafficking and persistent welfare failures indicates that prohibition rather than certification is the ethically appropriate response.
Denne afhandling undersøger japanske dyrecaféer med udgangspunkt i David A. Fennells ramme for turisme og dyreetik og diskuterer, hvordan turist–dyr-møder kan blive mere retfærdige for de dyr, der lever i fangenskab. Med en kvalitativ, flerstrenget metode kombinerer studiet dokumentanalyse, teoretisk arbejde, analyse af brugergenereret indhold fra 55 Google- og Reddit-anmeldelser af fem eksotiske dyrecaféer i Tokyo samt semistrukturerede ekspertinterviews med en specialist i dyrevelfærd og turisme og grundlæggeren af en rednings-sheltercafé i Osaka. Analysen viser en markant kløft mellem positive og negative turistanmeldelser af de samme steder, hvilket peger på udbredt manglende viden om dyrevelfærd: positive gæster tolker eksempelvis uglernes stilhed som ro og renlighed som tegn på god behandling, mens negative anmeldere beskriver bundethed, pladsmangel, forstyrrelse af nattedyr, stereotyp adfærd og personale, der aktivt overtrumfer dyrenes modstand. Afhandlingen udvikler begrebet banal fangenskab som en udvidelse af Fennells dark tourism-prototype for at indfange, hvordan dyrelidelse normaliseres i hverdagsprægede forbrugssituationer og dermed gøres usynlig. Med Fennell og Sheppards scales of justice-model placeres eksotiske dyrecaféer i kategorien ingen retfærdighed, kendetegnet ved behandling af dyr som profitgenererende objekter, systematisk begrænsning af arts-typisk adfærd og undertrykkelse af dyrenes protest, blandt andet gennem rabatter for positive anmeldelser, der forvrider feedbacksystemer. I kontrast viser den undersøgte sheltercafé bevægelse mod intermediær retfærdighed gennem individuel overvågning af dyr, obligatorisk besøgsoplysning, respekt for dyrenes samtykke, flere finansieringskilder og et driftskoncept centreret om adoption. Afhandlingen konkluderer, at bæredygtig turismecertificering og målrettet gæsteoplysning, eksempelvis via forhåndsorientering, obligatoriske rundvisninger og akkrediteringsordninger inspireret af zoologiske certifikater, kan tilbyde realistiske forbedringer, men at for eksotiske dyrecaféer med vildtfangne eller fangenskabsopdrættede truede arter peger dokumenteret sammenhæng til ulovlig handel og systematiske velfærdssvigt på, at forbud snarere end certificering er den etisk passende løsning.
[This abstract has been generated with the help of AI directly from the project full text]