If Cats Disappeared from the World is set in modern-day Japan and grapples with several issues affecting Japanese society, including social isolation and the impact of technology on daily life.

Globally, the late 20th and early 21st centuries have seen rapid technological advancement, which has had a dramatic impact on everyday life and interpersonal relationships. Advances in communication technologies, such as the development of mobile phones and social media, have been particularly influential across the world in general, and in Japan in particular.

Japan is a country with low a birth rate, a rapidly aging population, and a cultural tendency toward unequal work-life balance. As a consequence, millions of its citizens live in single-person households with relatively little community engagement. In its most extreme form, this isolation manifests in the phenomenon of hikikomori, individuals who do not leave their homes or interact with other people for months or years at a time. In 2021, the Japanese government appointed a dedicated Loneliness Minister to address the issue of social isolation and consequent high suicide rates. Japan is currently facing a kodokushi, or lonely death, epidemic: Hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people are expected to die alone without being cared for by anyone (McCurry, Justin.