Nameneko’s Nekomaru Trading Card and Japan’s 1980s Parody ID Craze

Nameneko Trading Card Collection No. 10 — Nekomaru

The Photographer Who Dressed Cats as Delinquents

Nameneko is the creation of Japanese photographer Satoru Tsuda, whose copyright mark—©SATORU TSUDA—appears on every piece of merchandise in the series. The concept is as simple as it is distinctive: dress cats in the clothing associated with Japan’s bancho and yankii subculture, photograph them with a straight face, and let the collision of severity and silliness do the work. It did. Between 1980 and 1982, Nameneko merchandise spread through stationery shops and dagashi-ya (small candy stores) across Japan, becoming one of the defining pop-culture moments of the decade. Outside Japan the series is known today under the name “Cat Delinquents.” The intellectual property belongs entirely to one individual rather than a corporation, which is unusual for mass-market character goods from that era and gives the series a distinctly personal origin.

A Parody ID That Became a Cultural Artifact

Nameneko’s biggest hit was never a figure or a plush—it was a parody identity card. Each card mimicked the format of a Japanese driver’s license or student ID, printed with a cat’s photo, a fictional name, a group affiliation, and a date, as if documenting a real individual. The gag worked so well it crossed into real-world consequence: some teenagers reportedly attempted to use the novelty cards as counterfeit identification. The press took notice, and Nameneko products began carrying a printed disclaimer—”This card is a parody”—that is now as much a part of the series’ identity as the cats themselves.

This trading card carries that same DNA. Card number 10 in the collection features Nekomaru, a tabby-and-white cat photographed in a red checkered beret, vest, and bow tie. The card lists his affiliation as “KUJIRA, NAMENNAYO”—KUJIRA meaning “whale” in Japanese, most likely referring to a fictional gang or school group within the Nameneko universe, though the card itself is the primary source for that detail. The design follows the established format: horizontal, cream and blue, decorated with fish-bone and paw-print motifs, and stamped with the parody disclaimer. A date, SEP.12,1981, also appears; it most likely represents a character birthday or commemorative date within the Nameneko fiction, though whether this card originates from the original boom period or a later revival cannot be confirmed from the card alone.

Real Photography, One Photographer, a Numbered Series

Several things set Nameneko apart from the broader world of Japanese character merchandise. Every image in the series is a real photograph—not an illustration, not animation—of an actual cat in actual clothing. That physical quality gives the cards a texture that purely drawn characters cannot match. The trading card format borrowed the numbered, series-based structure from the sports card culture popular in Japan at the same time, applying it to character merchandise and building in the collector’s instinct to complete a set. The #10 designation here makes plain that a larger series surrounds this card. For anyone drawn to 1980s Japanese pop culture, Nameneko sits at a precise and unrepeatable intersection: street culture, absurdist humor, real photography, and the world of the dagashi-ya card rack.