Meeooooww!
This pretty kitty is called a maneki-neko, meaning beckoning cat in Japanese. This cat figurine is a lucky charm that is believed to attract good luck and fortune for its owners. You can often see them in the entrances to shops or restaurants in Japan and China, and some like mine are battery powered so the cats paw will literally beckon you in!
This is one of the folktales explaining Maneki-neko origin:
The stray cat and the shop: The operator of an impoverished shop (or inn, tavern, temple, etc.) takes in a starving, stray cat despite barely having enough to feed himself. In gratitude, the cat sits in the front of the store beckoning customers, thus bringing prosperity as a reward to the charitable proprietor. Ever after, the "beckoning cat" has been a symbol of good luck for small business owners.
Source Wikipedia