If Cats Disappeared from the World (2012) is the first novel by Japanese author Genki Kawamura. The narrative follows an isolated and terminally ill young man who extends his life one day at a time by making a deal with the Devil, allowing things like phones, movies, and clocks to disappear from the world in exchange for another day of life. As these are sacrificed, the young man comes to terms with mortality and with the important role that seemingly mundane objects have played in his life and relationships. This exploration of loss, love, and reconciliation comes to a head when the Devil proposes that cats, including the protagonist’s beloved pet cat Cabbage, be the next thing to go.

Kawamura is a bestselling author, and award-winning director, producer, and screenwriter. If Cats Disappeared from the World sold over a million copies in Japan and was adapted into a major motion picture in 2016. It explores themes such as Valuing Objects, Relationships, and the Everyday, Coming to Terms with Death, and Juxtaposing Gain and Loss.

This guide uses the 2018 Picador edition of Eric Selland’s 2018 translation into English.

Content warning: This novel includes depictions and discussions of terminal illness, human and animal death, existential dread, and grief.

Plot Summary

The narrative is in the form of a letter written by the unnamed protagonist to his estranged father. Each chapter covers one day in the week following the protagonist’s diagnosis with terminal cancer, and includes the protagonist’s ruminations over these events and his remembrances of the past.

The protagonist is a young Japanese postman whose mother died four years prior, leaving him to care for her beloved cat Cabbage. After the postman’s doctor diagnoses him with terminal brain cancer, he returns home to find the Devil waiting with an offer to prolong his life one day at a time in exchange for making one object disappear from the world each day—an object of the Devil’s choosing. The Devil looks like a doppelganger of the postman, but dressed in florid Hawaiian shirts; the postman nicknames him “Aloha.” Aloha is cheerful and friendly, with an enthusiasm that the postman frequently finds grating. After much deliberation, the postman agrees to the deal. After considering getting rid of chocolate, Aloha instead chooses to get rid of phones, allowing the postman to make one final call first.

The following day, phones no longer exist. The postman meets up with his first love—the recipient of his final phone call—and informs her of his upcoming death. Their relationship, which lasted for three years, ended seven years ago on a trip to Argentina. They became alienated from each other after the death of a new friend. When they had been together, they primarily spoke over the phone despite the fact that the girlfriend initially had no telephone of her own, and only later procured a landline. The postman had spoken much more verbosely over the phone than in person.

In light of their shared love of movies and the postman’s impending demise, the ex-girlfriend invites him to a private showing of a movie the following day. Aloha chooses to make movies disappear next, so this movie will be the postman’s last. Conflicted, the postman visits the movie rental store of his childhood friend Tatsuya, informing him of his illness and enlisting his help. After spending several hours staring at a blank illuminated screen imagining the movie of his life, the postman collapses outside the movie theater.

The postman wakes to learn that Aloha carried him home and also cast a magic spell allowing Cabbage to talk. The postman agrees to sacrifice clocks in exchange for another day of life, feeling only slightly guilty for destroying his estranged father’s watchmaking job. The postman spends the day with Cabbage, walking through the neighborhood and talking together. Before his mother died, he and his father took her on a final family holiday to some hot springs. She died of cancer four years ago; Cabbage cannot remember her, but does remember that he was happy with her. Aloha proposes that cats should be the next object to disappear.

The next morning, the postman panics that Cabbage is not sleeping alongside him, worried that the Devil has preemptively disappeared all cats. He runs through the street toward distant meows, weeping and remembering his mother’s death. He finds Cabbage alive and well at his ex-girlfriend’s movie theater. His ex-girlfriend gives him a letter from his mother. It lists 10 traits that his mother loved about him and requests that he reconcile with his father. The postman, warmed by Cabbage’s presence and the memory of his mother, resolves to accept his death rather than see cats disappear.

The postman informs the Devil of his decision to save cats and makes preparations for his own death. Aloha accepts the postman’s refusal, hinting that God has thereby won a bet between them. Aloha reveals that his appearance reflects the postman’s personal devil: the version of himself that he could have been. The postman accepts that he will die with regrets, and parts amicably with Aloha. While clearing out his apartment, the postman finds a box containing his childhood stamp collection. The stamps were treasured gifts from his father, and helped the postman to understand and connect with the man. Recalling this encourages the postman to reach out to his father, and to leave Cabbage to him when he dies. He writes the letter that is the novel, explaining the events of the past week.

After completing his letter, instead of posting it, the postman decides to deliver it to his father in person. The postman recognizes similarities between himself and his father, as well as his father’s positive characteristics. The final scene is one of hope; the postman cycling to visit his father with the letter in hand and Cabbage sitting in the bicycle’s basket.