Every dog has its day in Japan as an ageing population dotes on pets

[Global Paw]

The waiter, a starched white napkin over his arm, approaches the table, smiles and sets down the antipasto - marinated chicken with cabbage - before the expectant diners. The Komazawa restaurant, with its adobe walls and imported wines, is like any of the chic dining establishments in this leafy Tokyo neighbourhood - except that at least half of the customers are dogs.

Japan is in the midst of a canine frenzy. Last year, the number of dogs kept as pets leapt by 1.5m to 11m, according to the pet food manufacturers' association. Spending on pets - mainly dogs and cats - will this year top Y1,000bn ($9bn, €7.4bn, £5bn) for the first time. In a society with a chronically low birth rate, dogs outnumber babies (of under 12 months) by 10 to one.

Academics say the dog craze is symptomatic of deep social uncertainty as Japan approaches a period of unprecedented ageing and a demographic future that could see the population halve by the end of the century.

Most startling in this new craze is the range of dog-related goods and services springing up, as proud "parents" lavish on their pets the attention once commanded by their children.

Dog boutiques sell chiffon dresses, T-shirts, booties, ribbons and straw bonnets. Louis Vuitton, already wildly popular with Japanese humans, now sells to dogs too; leather leashes fetch about Y88,000. (The dogs, pampered and coddled, do not fetch much at all.)

Several dog hotels have opened, catering to travellers who cannot bear to be parted from their animals. There are pet-sitting services, dog parks, where pet-less unfortunates can rent a dog by the hour, and pet cemeteries, some of which allow dog and owner to be interred side-by-side.

Dog bakeries prepare poochie birthday cakes, and dog furniture shops offer the latest creature comforts, including dog-sized waterbeds. And if all this pampering leads to puppy fat, there's always the Dog Promenade running machine from Y164,500, or Wanfoo Dog organic health food.

Mitsugu Takahashi, director of Azabu veterinary university near Tokyo, says this boom reflects the social dislocation of an ageing nation in which women are having fewer children, an average of 1.32, against 2.0 in the US and 3.65 in 1950s Japan.

"Japan's social structure has altered drastically, and this is making people mentally and physically stressed," he says. "If there's an animal at home, family destruction can be mended."

Sayo Kanagawa of the Reflexology Association of Japan (Raja), which last month opened its first dog massage parlour, agrees. In the white-walled clinic in Ebisu, a well-heeled Tokyo district, she turns from watching a nervous chihua-hua enjoying a gentle neck rub, to address the human condition.

"When children fly the nest or when young people are living alone, they feel lonely and they want something to fill the blank in their lives," she says. Raja, which has 90 human reflexology centres, plans to open several more catering to dogs. In its Ebisu clinic, they can have a 30-minute massage, aromatherapy and even a mud bath.

"Dogs heal us but they are not being healed," complains Ms Kanagawa, as a freshly shampooed white-and-brown cavalier is eased on to the massage table. "They spend a lot of time alone in small apartments with slippery wooden floors, waiting for their master to come home. Dogs are feeling more and more stress."

"As far as Japanese people are concerned, once you cross the threshold of a home, you are part of the family. We want to feed our dog the same food and sleep in the same futon. Old people are beginning to pamper and love their pets more than their own children."

His theory is borne out by the disappearance of names such as Blackie or Snowy in favour of more human-sounding ones. The nervous chihuahua being rubbed down in Ebisu is called Shokichi, a name he shares with the commissioner of the Financial Services Agency.

Animal rights activists worry that the dog boom is just another fad, like Pokemon or Tamagotchi, the digital chicken that clucked its last some time ago. Concerned about the number of dogs being abandoned, legislators are pushing for dogs to have identification microchips implanted.

[fireworksinjuly]

The resturant, bakeries, hotels and cemetaries all would be good ideas in general, anywhere. I love my dogs, while Shredder and Runt are a pain outside of the house Kino is very well behaved and I wish I could take him more places with me.

Though I would not buy them Louis Vuitton.