Which cat food & care brands do AI assistants recommend in Japan? Q4 2026
In Japan, AI assistants most often recommend Royal Canin, GimCat and Hill’s for cat. Royal Canin is named by 5 of 5 assistants.
What the data says
Royal Canin (Mars) is the cat food & care brand AI assistants recommend most in Japan, taking 21.5% of all recommendation points across 5 assistants. GimCat follows with 7.1% and Hill’s is third with 6.3%.
Royal Canin's lead over GimCat is 14.4 points, a clear advantage in how AI shortlists the category.
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Grok put Royal Canin first, while DeepSeek favours GimCat.
The top five brands hold 46% of recommendations out of 32 brands named in total, leaving room for challengers to break into AI shortlists.
| # | Brand | Owner | AI share | ChatGPT | Claude | DeepSeek | Gemini | Grok |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal Canin | Mars | 21.5% | 45 | 95 | 43 | 35 | 105 |
| 2 | GimCat | Gimborn | 7.1% | 12 | – | 60 | 35 | – |
| 3 | Hill’s | Colgate-Palmolive | 6.3% | 20 | 50 | – | – | 25 |
| 4 | Virbac | Virbac | 5.9% | 35 | 8 | – | 25 | 20 |
| 5 | Ciao | Inaba Pet Food | 5% | 35 | – | – | – | 40 |
| 6 | Inaba | Inaba Pet Food | 4.7% | – | – | 35 | 35 | – |
| 7 | Unicharm | Unicharm | 4.5% | 35 | – | – | 32 | – |
| 8 | Purina One | Nestlé | 4.3% | – | 52 | – | 12 | – |
| 9 | Whiskas | Mars | 3.7% | 20 | – | 12 | – | 24 |
| 10 | Temptations | Mars | 3.5% | 25 | 20 | – | – | 8 |
| 11 | Hill's | Colgate-Palmolive | 3.3% | – | – | – | – | 50 |
| 12 | Beaphar | Beaphar | 3% | 20 | – | 25 | – | – |
| 13 | Nisshin | Nisshin Pet Food Inc. | 3% | – | – | 45 | – | – |
| 14 | Sheba | Mars | 2.7% | – | – | 20 | 20 | – |
| 15 | Greenies Feline | Mars | 2.3% | – | 35 | – | – | – |
| 16 | Anicom | Anicom Holdings | 1.9% | – | 20 | – | 8 | – |
| 17 | Petline | Petline Australia | 1.7% | 25 | – | – | – | – |
| 18 | Inaba Pet Food | Inaba Pet Food | 1.7% | – | – | – | 25 | – |
| 19 | MonPetit | Nestlé | 1.7% | – | – | – | 25 | – |
| 20 | Nutramax | Nutramax Laboratories | 1.6% | – | 12 | – | – | 12 |
Questions about AI cat food & care recommendations
- Which cat food & care brand does ChatGPT recommend most in Japan?
- ChatGPT recommends Royal Canin most often for cat food & care in Japan. Across all assistants, Royal Canin leads with 21.5% of recommendations.
- Which cat food & care brand is improving fastest in Japan?
- Inaba has the strongest momentum among challengers: AI names it first in 2 of 2 answers where it appears, while holding 4.7% share. This is the first Q4 2026 reading; change over time will be shown from the next update.
- How is the ranking calculated?
- We ask each AI assistant the questions shoppers ask in each category and market, record the top five brands it names, and give 35, 25, 20, 12 and 8 points for positions one to five. Share is a brand's points divided by all points awarded.
Cat: AI rankings by country
Covers: Cat Food, Cat Health, Cat Treats.
Method: each AI assistant is asked the shopper questions for every segment in the category and market; the top five brands named score 35, 25, 20, 12 and 8 points. Share is a brand's points divided by all points awarded. Rankings reflect AI answers, not sales.
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