Crisis on cat island On Aoshima, is time finally running out for human and feline inhabitants?

The reason for Aoshima's nickname is clear before we set foot on the island.

- Justin McCurry

The reason for Aoshima's nickname is clear before we set foot on the island. As our tiny vessel slows to a halt and its handful of passengers prepare to disembark, the quayside is alive with orangey-white blurs – a whiskered welcome party that forms as soon as its members hear the hum of a motor.

The only human here to greet us is Naoko Kamimoto, dressed in a pinafore with feline designs, who secures the boat with a rope as half a dozen cats swirl around her feet.

A 35-minute ferry ride off Ehime prefecture in Shikoku – the smallest of Japan's four main islands – Aoshima is the best-known of the country's 11 "cat islands". Despite the absence of a shop, restaurant or guesthouse, this speck in the Seto Inland Sea has become a must-see for visitors intrigued by a remote community where cats easily outnumber humans.

But Aoshima's days as a feline-fixated tourist destination are numbered. A decade ago there were about 200 feral cats – the descendants of animals enlisted by fishers to destroy rodents who were gnawing through their sardine nets.