If you think cardboard boxes are meant to be just plain and functional, you need to see these “Cat Ear” boxes from Yamato Holdings. 

That’s right, Japanese courier service operator Yamato Holdings have introduced a new level of kawaii to the world of delivery packaging, and we have to say we simply adore what they’ve come up with.

▼ Introducing their Nekomimi (“Cat Ear”) Box.


Yes, the boxes actually have cat ears! Yamato Holding’s delivery service is well known in Japan as “Kuroneko Yamato” (Black Cat Yamato), which is where the cat motif obviously comes from, but we have to give them credit for turning it into a unique and utterly adorable box design.

The Nekomimi Box was actually offered for a limited time on a trial basis in the Kansai Area in 2018 and was so well-received that they decided to make it an official product available throughout Japan,

▼ The box comes in two colors, white…

▼ …and black, which is the color of the cat in the Yamato Holdings logo.

▼ This is what the box looks like before assembly.

▼ And here you can see how it looks assembled with the top open.

They also have pictures showing how the box should be prepared for shipment. You place the label on the surface with the ears printed on it, and you keep the actual ears as they are, without making them stand up, to prevent the ears from being damaged during delivery. The box itself measures 27 x 20 x 13 centimeters (10.6 x 7.9 x 5.1 inches).

And the genius part about this box is that it’s designed so that anyone receiving the package can reuse it even after it’s been used for delivery.

If you switch the top flap so that the surface with the label attached goes beneath the clean unused surface, and then stick the cat ears up, you can use it as an awesomely cute box to store knick-knacks and whatever else you want to keep organized.

Oh, and just to make things even sweeter, if you put a black box and white box together side-by-side, their tails create a little heart mark!

The Nekomimi Box can be purchased from Yamato Packing Technology Institute’s online shop Neko Hako as a set of two boxes for 1,200 yen (US$11.33), 4 boxes for 1,600 yen or 6 boxes for 2,000 yen.

Currently, the Nekomimi Box is is scheduled to be available until March 2021, and apparently, there are also plans for Yamato Holdings to release different seasonal versions of the box as well, which we can’t wait to see.

Considering Japan’s love for cat ears, we wouldn’t be surprised if these boxes become a huge hit. Plus, who wouldn’t be happy to receive a gift in a package like that, right?

Source: Yamato Holdings news release
Top image: Neko Hako online shop
Insert images: Neko Hako online shop (1), (2) 
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