A Cat Was Spotted Strolling Off With a Fish, and Japan Went Looking for the Barefoot Woman Behind It

What's going on

Someone in Japan photographed a cat walking along with a whole fish in its mouth. The first shot is taken from a little distance, the second is a digital zoom and a bit grainy, but the picture is clear enough: a cat, a fish, and a confident stride. Commenters call it an orange tabby.

The caption was a single line that nearly every Japanese reader can finish in their head. The cat-with-a-fish-in-its-mouth is the opening of the theme song of Sazae-san, the family anime that has aired on Sunday evenings since 1969. In the song, a dora-neko (an old word for a stray or mischievous cat) runs off with a fish, and the cheerful 24-year-old housewife Sazae, instantly recognizable by her hairdo, chases it down the street in her bare feet.

It is a cartoon cliché that everyone knows by heart and almost nobody has ever seen in real life. So the replies split into two groups: people who suddenly hear the music, and people who start checking the background of the photo for a barefoot woman.