Before the War, dogs were kept primarily by people, affluent enough to have a house and land. They may have been kept as guard dogs but these dogs were seldom chained and could roam around freely. Because they were free and usually greeted by everyone, they were friendly and non-aggressive. There is the famous story of Hachiko, an Akita dog, who used to see his master off at a Tokyo station every morning and go back to the station to greet him on his return in the evening. One day his master died suddenly but Hachiko continued to go up and down to the station from the house everyday for many years until he died of old age. The Japanese were so impressed by the devotion and loyalty of this dog that they erected a statue to him which still stands outside Shibuya station. It is inconceivable that a dog like Hachiko would be allowed to roam freely in Tokyo today. Not only would people be frightened of him but certainly the public authorities, the hokensho, would quickly pick him up and dispatch him to the gas chambers.

It goes without saying that dogs all but disappeared from Japan during the war years, eaten by the starving population. But after the War people began to keep them again. However attitudes had changed. A zealous campaign by the authorities to eradicate rabies, meant that stray dogs were hunted down and often killed brutally in front of the public. Many older Japanese recall the horror of witnessing this. The public became dog phobic as a result and were ordered to chain all dogs as they represented a menace and danger to people. Dog phobia survives to this day. Some people scream at the sight of a lively dog while other cross the road to avoid meeting one, even a well-behaved dog on a lead. Mothers scream at their children, " Be careful, the dog will bite you." So children who are instilled with the belief that mother is safe and everything outside is potentially threatening, learn early on to fear dogs and to assume all dogs bite. In fact there is some truth in this since the custom of keeping dogs on chains, means that any normal dog changes from a friendly one into a neurotic animal and often one that bites. Dogs can only relieve their stress by barking or biting people.

With Japan's growing affluence in the 70s and 80s people wanted to leave their cramped apartments (dubbed ' rabbit hutches') and buy their own dream house 'my home-ism.' Of course if one had a house one also needed the accessories to go with it, and one of these accessories was a dog, but not just any dog, it had to be a fashionable one. So started the 'pet boom,' which is still flourishing today, though less than in the peak bubble years. These first time house owners also became first time dog owners, which meant they knew very little about how to keep a dog. The resulting booms were tragic in consequence, Huskies in particular. The Husky boom lasted about a couple of years when everyone had to have one. The Husky is totally unsuited to a cramped urban environment, they shed hair which hygiene-obsessive Japanese hate, they are difficult to train, and the Japanese climate with its very hot humid summers is torture to a dog bred of Arctic climes. As a result, Huskies soon filled the city gas-chambers to overflowing and the countryside was full of abandoned Huskies and their crosses. Nowadays Huskies have been replaced by the subsequent booms; Golden Retrievers, black Labradors, Border Collies, Welsh Corgies etc