Cats, culture, and code are converging in Japan, where more owners are leaning on artificial intelligence to better understand when their animals are unwell. What’s emerging is not a replacement for veterinary care, but a new kind of everyday tool that can help people notice pain earlier, especially in older cats who may suffer quietly.
When pets become family
In Japan, cats hold a special place in the public imagination, long associated with good fortune and warmly woven into daily life. That cultural affection is now meeting a social reality: with an aging population and a low birth rate, many households treat pets as central members of the family and are increasingly willing to invest in their care.
This deep bond helps explain why technology that might seem optional elsewhere can feel practical here. The scale is striking as well, with the Japan Pet Food Association estimating there were nearly 16 million pet cats and dogs last year, a figure that surpassed the number of children under 15 in the country.
Against that backdrop, digital tools that translate small, hard-to-read signs into clearer guidance carry a particular appeal. For owners, the promise is simple: fewer guesses, fewer missed warnings, and a better sense of when “wait and see” should become “call the clinic.”
Reading a cat’s face with AI
One of the newest options gaining attention is CatsMe!, an AI-based app built to help detect pain in cats by analyzing facial expressions. Developed by tech startup Carelogy in collaboration with researchers from Nihon University, the app draws on a research-led approach rather than casual pattern matching.
According to reporting cited in the article, the system was trained using 6,000 cat photos that specialists categorized based on pain-related expressions, enabling the model to identify pain with accuracy of more than 95%, a number expected to improve as additional data is gathered. The experience for the owner is designed to be simple: a photo is uploaded, and the app returns an assessment that sorts the likelihood of pain into three levels—none, slight, or severe.
That kind of quick readout matters because pain can be widespread but easily overlooked, particularly among senior cats. Nihon University professor Kazuya Edamura is quoted noting that more than 70% of elderly cats have arthritis or pain, yet only 2% of them actually go to a hospital, highlighting the gap between what cats may be experiencing and what owners are able to act on.
A daily routine, and a growing platform
For some users, CatsMe! becomes part of a steady, everyday rhythm rather than something opened only during emergencies. The article describes pet owner Mayumi Kitakata using the app to check her cat’s facial expressions and monitor activity, making the technology feel less like a novelty and more like a regular health habit.
Her motivation is rooted in experience: she recalls a past pet, Soran, who died from cancer at eight years old, and reflects that earlier notice might have changed what was possible, even as she acknowledges that even the veterinarian did not know at the time. In that light, the app’s value is emotional as much as practical, offering a measure of reassurance by surfacing issues that could otherwise remain hidden.
The platform itself has expanded quickly since launch, reaching more than 230,000 users across over 50 countries, according to the same article. It also underwent a major update in January 2024, shifting to a paid service while making features that were previously limited to premium members available across the user base.
Those features include support for recording multiple cats, evaluating multiple photos at once, and providing tailored advice using the prior two weeks of data. Even with the move to a paid model, the app offers a two-week free trial, positioning it as something curious owners can test before committing.
