On a late afternoon when the sun was a warm coin in the sky, Makoto sat at his bench and opened the "Free" folder. The videos had multiplied, and so had the faces that came with them. He selected one: a cat kneading a blanket with a look of pure concentration, the kind of seriousness that is only possible when a creature is entirely at peace. He watched it once, then once more, then saved it to a new subfolder named "Keep."
on YouTube, a digital oasis documenting the gentle, unscripted lives of Japanese cats. Makoto Oya Cat Videos Free
Makoto Oya, a former tax accountant from Saitama Prefecture, snared stray cats in steel traps and subjected them to horrific abuse, including drenching them with boiling water and burning them with a gas torch. He recorded these acts and uploaded the footage to an anonymous video-sharing site, often using public Wi-Fi to evade detection. On a late afternoon when the sun was