SEGA TOYS released its line of ‘Kimit’ toys in February 2024. The cat robots were supposedly trained on the data of over 100 cats, and can mimic typical feline behavior.
This innovation, which cost ¥33,000 (around $215), seems more expensive than adopting a cat, but Sega Toys was aiming at customers who were allergic to the real thing. This is quite a problem: a survey by Tokyo-based LG Electronics Japan in 2023 revealed that 12.5 percent of cat owners have an adverse reaction to their own pets.