The world's first cat café, "Cat Flower Garden" opened in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1998 and eventually became a global tourist destination. The concept spread to Japan, where the first one named "Neko no Jikan" (lit. "Cat's Time") was opened in Osaka in 2004. Due to Japan's land size and population, many residents live in small apartments or condominiums which do not allow pets, making cat cafés a very popular destination for young workers looking for the companionship and comfort offered. Tokyo's first cat café, named "Neko no Mise" (Cat's Store), opened in 2005. After this, the popularity of cat cafés boomed in Japan. As of 2026, Japan’s cat cafes number over 300.

Cat cafés originally opened in Asia: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, and mainland China. However, since the 2010s, cat cafes gained in popularity in many countries worldwide, for example in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and United States.

Positivism is a philosophical school that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positive—the latter meaning a posteriori facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.