The morning news staple is event television for these cute kitties.

As much as Japan loves gadgets, the country’s approach to TV news is quaintly low-tech. Tune into any morning talk show, and you’ll see presenters speaking and gesturing in front of monitors, posters, printed photos, or other physical props related to the subject they’re discussing.

All of this suits the on-air talent just fine, since there’s a huge amount of crossover between light news and entertainment personalities in Japan, and keeping the camera on you, instead of a CG cutaway, does wonders for building your personal brand. Inadvertently, it can also do wonders for entertaining viewers’ cats, as shown in this video from Japanese Twitter user @nyanpyo.

As the weather reporter explains the progress of a typhoon across Japan, @nyanpyo’s kitties sit in rapt attention, but not because they’re wondering if their owner will be able to hang his laundry outside today. No, the fascinated felines are waiting for the reporter to bust out his pointer, which unbeknownst to him is doing double duty as a pet toy. The two cats track it attentively with their eyes, craning their necks to try to find it when the reporter lowers it out of the camera’s view. They even try to snatch the rod in their paws, although since the reporter is actually safe in his studio he gets to hang onto his piece of professional equipment.

“Thanks for playing with my cats this morning,” tweeted @nyanpyo, who says this is part of his pets’ daily routine. Like parents who can take a quick breather while the tykes are watching Sesame Street, we’re sure he appreciates having an extra minute or two to do whatever he needs to at the start of his day.

Source: Hamster Sokuho, Twitter/@nyanpyo

Follow Casey on Twitter, where he can’t remember the last time Tokyo had a sunny forecast, and it’s starting to drive him a little crazy.