The cats are the designers. My role is communications. (Part 2)

I wish I’d realized sooner

– “Together with my cat,” which won a GOOD DESIGN AWARD in 2023, is a test kit that allows you to check the health of your cat at home. I was surprised that you had started to work even in a specialist domain like this one. Please tell us about the development process.

Yukako Futono (Representative Director, Cross Clover Japan) In the last 30 years, the lifespan of cats has tripled, but due to this, the number of cats that get sick has also increased. I developed Elizabethan collars for cats suffering from illness and dishes for cats needing nursing care, but when I listened to their owners, they all said, “I just wish I had realized that they were ill sooner...”

Even if cats are ill, they are very patient, so they don’t show anything in their expression or attitude unless it gets very bad. Even if they look healthy, they may actually have kidney disease, diabetes, or gum disease. By the time you take them to the vet, they are already terminally ill in many cases.

Until now, testing for such diseases could only be done in clinics. I started to develop this product because I hoped that being able to carry out testing easily at home might lead to early treatment.

– It’s not easy for owners to take their cats to the vet. They have to make the time to take them, and there is no public insurance, so the costs pile up. What’s more, cats often don’t like it, either. If checking regularly at home becomes possible, we can reduce the burden on the owners, too.

Futono That’s right. I thought that being able to test easily would help keep cats healthy. It also generates new insights, and so we’re starting to see more ways in which we can support them. Recently, several veterinary studies have reported that gum disease has an effect on chronic renal failure. We have come to understand the importance of maintaining oral health.

This kit contains a test using saliva to measure the pH (acidity) and Hb (hemoglobin) levels in the mouth to check for the risk of tartar and gum disease, and a urine test to check for the risk of diabetes and kidney disease.

Futono Together with these, I also made a kit to test the hardness of cats’ drinking water. Although hard water such as mineral water, which contains a lot of minerals and calcium, is good for the human body, in cats it induces stones, which increase the risk of kidney disease. I recommend giving cats soft water, and checking the hardness of their drinking water beforehand.

Nimbly cutting across genres

– When it comes to the development of everything from everyday items such as tableware and clothing to medical products, a new and different kind of cooperation between professionals is essential.

Futono Fortunately, I met Cellspect, a developer of in vitro diagnostics in Morioka City, and this gave me a boost. The company is renowned for its technological expertise in the field of POCT (point of care testing), and develops test kits for use by humans. What’s more, they were interested in applying this expertise to pets.

At the request of Professor Yoshihito Shimazu, the director of the Life Museum of Azabu University, the company was using a kit made for humans to measure the pH of animals other than dogs and cats. This was in order to study gum disease in animals. Through that connection, we have asked Professor Shimazu to supervise our development process, too. We also asked Tohoku Bio Engineering, which is developing teaching materials for scientific experiments, to cooperate with us, and the joint development began.

– Although you developed the test kit for cats from scratch, the groundwork for making it was already in place, so the development went smoothly, didn’t it?

Futono And moreover, everyone in the development team loved cats. They worked with me to come up with a testing method that wouldn’t feel disagreeable to cats. For the urine test, we thought about collecting it with a dropper, but we finally adopted the method of collecting it from a pet pad on which the cat had urinated in the toilet. I wanted to make something which the cat wouldn’t know was a test.

– You mentioned the risk of gum disease. The number of dog owners who brush their dogs’ teeth is increasing; do cats also need their teeth brushed? We sometimes see gels or creams that you just put on top of food or let your cat lick, without using a toothbrush.

Futono The importance of brushing cats’ teeth is not yet widely recognized. I feel that we must communicate this as well. Humans go to great effort to brush their own teeth, don’t they? But when it comes to cats, they tend to think that it’s okay to let them just lick the cream, without brushing their teeth properly. The risk of gum disease cannot be reduced unless built-up tartar is thoroughly removed.

Is that tap water okay?

– Even if something takes effort for the owner, if it is necessary for the cat, you will face it squarely and communicate it. I feel that this attitude has led to the development of trust in the Nekozuki brand and has gained you fans.

Futono In the process of development, we repeatedly make small improvements; our customers buy the new versions of the products again, or they collect them as motivation to realize their dream for the future even though they don’t have a cat yet.

– Nekozuki products seem as though they would make cats happy, so people might want to collect them all.

Futono If that’s the case, I’m very happy. All the more so since we can’t turn a half-finished product into a completed product, it might take some time, but this makes me feel even more seriously about continuing to develop it thoroughly.

– Among your various activities, what’s especially interesting is that you’ve established the Nekozuki Lab and are working with experts to research the ecology of cats. To disseminate this information, you are creating a school called “Nekozuki no Gakko” on your website where customers can learn about their beloved cats in depth.

Futono It’s an intensive school where experts in each field are invited to give lectures for 4 to 5 hours. We had lectures on kidney disease the other day. I upload these as videos.

Futono I invited the lecturer because I wanted to know how to relate to cats with kidney disease and what we could do without putting a burden on the cats. I think it’s important not only to develop products but also to communicate such information.

– When it comes to the water you mentioned earlier, too, I think most households give the tap water in their homes without thinking about it.

Futono We invited Dr. Mayumi Hori, who researches water at the University of Tokyo, to give lectures about this. Tap water in Japan is soft, but its degree of hardness varies from region to region. The hardness is relatively low in mountainous areas and areas with heavy snowfall, while it tends to be high in Tokyo, Saitama, and Chiba, where water from Kanto’s Tone River is used. Chiba Prefecture, in particular, is the region with the hardest water.

Futono In addition, even within the same municipality, the hardness may vary depending on how water is distributed, and may change depending on the season. If you keep giving your cat hard water, it may affect them in some way, so I think checking tap water quality regularly will give greater peace of mind.

Homemade food

– You are qualified as a Pet Care Adviser (Class 1), and as a Pet Nutritionist.

Futono I learned everything from Naruto, my first cat; or perhaps I should say that it all started with my feeling that I had done things which I regretted without knowing any better. This also led to the founding of my company.

I became interested in homemade food after welcoming my rescue cat Kinako. The trigger was Kinako’s continual diarrhea, which did not have any clear cause. So I decided to rethink her ordinary lifestyle and diet radically. When I switched from regular pet food containing additives and started feeding Kinako homemade food, her diarrhea stopped and her physical condition improved. At first, I referred to books and so on when making the food, but I decided that I should study homemade food seriously if I wanted to put this knowledge into practice, so I acquired related qualifications.

Futono Kinako has a sensitive physique, and it seems that she was working hard to eliminate chemicals and mold from her body. I continued to make homemade food because I thought it would be better to avoid the additives found in pet food.

– With all that said, making homemade food is quite challenging.

Futono It’s something I never imagined doing a while back, either, but when I tried it, it wasn’t all that difficult. I share my recipes on the Nekozuki website. They sell additive-free wet food made of only fish and water, so you can easily use it to make food by adding finely chopped vegetables, rice, and so on.

– There are a lot of things in our living environment that are good for humans but harmful to cats, like the example of hard water. Quite a lot of people keep cats without knowing this. That’s why you’re making an effort to disseminate correct information, isn’t it?

Futono Even if you buy a cat in the pet shop, they don’t tell you anything, right? For example, because the enzyme that detoxifies lipid chemicals is weak in cats, you can poison them when you spray essential oils into the air. You may be harming your cat’s health and causing them pain through the daily activities which you do without thinking. I believe that giving people a correct understanding through our website and other means is a step toward improving the situation.

Aiming for a GOOD DESIGN AWARD

– Changing the subject, you’ve won a GOOD DESIGN AWARD seven times so far, haven’t you? Does the fact that you enter repeatedly mean that you can feel the effects of winning an award?

Futono When I conduct a survey on the reasons why customers purchase our products, some customers answer that it is because they have won a GOOD DESIGN AWARD, and so I feel that it has helped me to gain their trust and given them that final push when it comes to choosing something. It also encourages the development team.

Futono When you apply, you fill out an entry sheet, but all of this content is exactly the same as what you thought through exhaustively in the pre-product development stage, or rather, it overlaps with the act of looking back on your own proposal. What makes your product different from those offered by other companies; does it have product appeal? It seems to me that it asks about the heart of planning and development, so you can check the product’s appeal by entering. So there is also an aspect of applying in order to enhance the product’s competitiveness.

I wanted to be a cat. This is the biggest thing I can do as a fan.

– What kinds of product will you be developing next?

Futono I believe that the needs related to nursing care, in particular, are growing. There are various different needs, including supporting cats that have fallen ill and developing the kits for early detection further, but the most important thing is to disseminate messages about helping cats to stay healthy. That’s because I want them to live long and healthy lives. I also want to think about space design in which cats can spend their days comfortably, and cats and humans can coexist.

– Do you have experience in architectural design?

Futono I don’t. But even though I haven’t studied product design, I have been developing products as a product designer. I think I can probably think of an ideal space from the cat’s viewpoint in a similar way. Just as I’ve done in the past, I think it’s not impossible if I seek the cooperation of companies and researchers and we use our respective strengths to develop the technology.

– Your activities give an inspiring message: “There’s nothing you can’t do if you decide that you want to.”

Futono Above all, I love cats, and I have worked with the sole intention of being useful to them. Developing products and disseminating information are simply the biggest things that I can do to support them as a fan. I don’t think showing my example is particularly going to encourage anyone, but if there’s something you want to change, why not just focus on it and go straight for it?

If there is something you like or want to back, taking action feels easy. I always wanted to be a cat. If I can’t be a cat, at least I want to be useful to them – that’s how I feel.

– You now declare that you want to make the world’s 600 million cats happy.

Futono There are a lot of issues. In Iwate, there were problems when a pet shop closed in 2022, leaving more than 300 animals stranded. Hiiragi, one of my cat employees, was one of the cats left behind at the pet shop and came to me from a shelter.

It is important to let many people know about this difficult situation, and at the same time, I want them to have options other than pet shops. It is a small step, but I have started a charity and projects to support cat protection groups.

– Your core principle is an unwavering love for cats, so your flexible thinking, ability to take bold action, and determination not to give up will continue. I hope that your activities will lead to the happiness of many cats.