Tokyo has quite a few "cat cafes" in which patrons can go in and play with cats as well as have drinks and food. As someone who loves cats, but isn't allowed to have one in her apartment, this is a pretty nifty service. I'm not sure, but I believe it's also the kind of thing which would never be allowed back home because of concerns about cleanliness when animals are mixed with food preparation and consumption areas. In Japan, there are very strict regulations to ensure safety for both the animals and the patrons.
The existence of cat cafes not only reflects a certain flexibility about how businesses can operate and a need to allow people to interact with pets on an incidental basis, but also trust that a business will do what is best when two tricky elements are mixed, and I'll miss that.
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