10 t22,000 lb
The Catbus weighs about 10 tonnes (roughly 22,000 lb) by our estimate. Studio Ghibli has never given it a weight or even a length, only a body shaped like a 1950s bonnet bus. A house cat scaled up to that size would weigh about 23 tonnes, but the Catbus is hollow, so we took a bit under half.
| If it were a solid catA 4.5 kg house cat scaled up to 7.9 m, head to rump | 23 t50,700 lb |
|---|---|
| High estimateHollow, with the cabin a third of the body | 15.3 t33,700 lb |
| Our estimateHollow, with the cabin a bit over half of the body | 10 t22,000 lb |
| Low estimateHollow, with the cabin two thirds of the body | 7.7 t17,000 lb |
There is no official size, let alone a weight. Japanese descriptions of the film only say its body is like a bonnet bus, the snub-nosed buses with the engine out front that ran on Japanese country roads in the 1950s, when the film is set. A typical one, Isuzu’s BX91 of 1951, was 7.9 m long, 2.45 m wide and 2.84 m tall. We take the Catbus to be about that long from head to rump, not counting the tail.
A house cat is about 46 cm from head to rump and weighs 4 to 5 kg. 7.9 m is about 17.2 times that, and weight grows with the cube of length, because a body gets longer, wider and taller all at once. 17.2 × 17.2 × 17.2 is about 5,100, and 5,100 × 4.5 kg is roughly 23 tonnes. That is a solid cat the size of a bus.
But the Catbus is not solid. Its back is one big cabin lined with fur seats, roomy enough for Totoro, who is about 2 m tall, to climb in. If that cabin takes up a bit over half of the body, the fur, legs and head that are left weigh about 10 tonnes. How big the cabin really is, is our own reading of the film: a third would give 15 t, two thirds about 7.7 t. And matched to a longer bus, like Isuzu’s 9.4 m BX352 of 1958, every number goes up by about 70 percent.
Japanese descriptions of the film call the Catbus a giant male bakeneko, a shape-shifting cat spirit. Its head is the bonnet, its fur is yellow with brown tiger stripes, and it runs on 12 legs, the count given by Nippon TV’s official Friday Road Show account. At night its eyes become headlights, and the eyes of the mice on its forehead and rump glow red as marker lamps and tail lights.
It even has a destination sign above its face, which changes with the trip: “Mei” when it goes to find her, “Shichikokuyama Hospital” for the visit to the girls’ mother. According to Miyazaki, it used to disguise itself as a kago, a palanquin carried by two men, and switched to copying buses once it had seen one.
The film ignores its weight completely. The Catbus runs as fast as the wind, over water, up to the tops of trees and along power lines, and trees step aside to let it through. Ten tonnes on a power line would bring it straight down.
Like Totoro, it is said to be visible only to children. Animals notice it, though: dogs bark as it rushes past and birds on the wires take off as it comes near. The Roman Album film guide calls it a bus for spirits, so Satsuki and Mei getting a ride is a special exception.
The Ghibli Museum in Mitaka has a plush Catbus on its second floor, full of soft soot sprites, that children aged 12 and under can climb into. It is slightly smaller than the film’s scale so it fits in the room. In 2011 the museum added an adult-sized one for an exhibition that ran until May 2012.
Since March 2024, Ghibli Park in Aichi has run real Catbus shuttles: Toyota APM electric vehicles with a Catbus body, 3.9 m long, carrying six passengers at up to 19 km/h. The museum also screens Mei and the Kittenbus, a 14-minute sequel in which Mei befriends the Catbus’s baby.
Twelve. That is the count given by Nippon TV’s official Friday Road Show account and the one most guides use.
There is no official measurement. It is drawn about the size of a 1950s Japanese bonnet bus, which was around 8 m (26 ft) long, 2.5 m wide and 2.8 m tall, and Totoro fits inside.
No. Studio Ghibli has never published one. The 10 tonnes here is our estimate from a house cat scaled up to bus length, minus the hollow cabin.
Like Totoro, it is said to be visible only to children. The film never explains why, but dogs and birds clearly sense it going by.
Only if you are 12 or under: the museum’s plush Catbus is just for children. The electric Catbus shuttles at Ghibli Park in Aichi carry six passengers at a time.
Last checked October 2, 2026.
