Cat cafes, dog cafes, owl cafes, and hedgehog cafes. In Japan, there are plenty of these animal cafes that visitors to have a cup of coffee with cute animals.
In March, a micro pig cafe opened in Meguro, Tokyo. Mipig Cafe is open for business and the pigs are tiny.
Micro or miniature pigs are a breed of pig much smaller than normal pigs, as you would expect from the name. They hail from the United Kingdom. As they can even fit into a teacup when they are babies, they are also often known as 'teacup' pigs.
Micro pigs are not well known in Japan, but with global celebrities such as Arianna Grande and David and Victoria Beckham owning micropigs themselves, their notoriety is growing among some in Japan.
Mipig says of their venture: "Micro pigs are such adorable animals. We would like Japanese people to be more familiar with the animal and eventually become a beloved member of the family."
Mipig has been run by Hooome Co. and SaLaDa Co. They carried out crowd-funding on their website to be able to set up their tiny pig-themed dream. They successfully raised 4.73 million yen (approx. $60,000) in the process.
They began importing micro pigs from the UK in March 2018 and also have a farm to breed them upon request from their customers.
