A growing number of restaurants, coffee shops, and lodgings are
taking down their No Pets Allowed signs, and a package tour
targeted at people who want to travel with their dogs has even
made its way on the market. Pets in Japan are appearing in
public much more these days as restaurants and other shops seek
to cater to the country's growing number of dog and cat lovers.
This summer a small restaurant opened in the heart of Tokyo
capitalizing on a pets-welcome policy. The restaurant has both
indoor and outdoor tables and offers a special menu for cats and
dogs. Adjoining it is a shop selling pet food and other pet
goods, as well as overnight pet-sitting facilities and an art
gallery featuring works on dog and cat motifs. The shops,
however, do not allow animals that have not been trained or
cannot be kept under control to enter.
Many people have visited the restaurant, including regulars
who stop by when walking their dogs and others living in the
area who drive there with their pets on the weekends. Customers
find it easy to strike up a conversation, and networking has
gotten underway, with recommendations on good veterinarians and
other pertinent information exchanged.
At "The Shop with Dogs," a coffee shop in one of Tokyo's
residential neighborhoods, customers can bring along any dog
small enough to be carried. It is a small cafe, with a counter
and three tables, and most people who go there are regulars.
Both humans and dogs are the lords and masters at a lakeside
lodging at Hamanako in Shizuoka Prefecture, which organizes a
swimming competition for guests and their pets in the summer and
parties at other times of the year. The events have proved to be
a big draw.
A travel agency launched a package tour expressly for
people with dogs this summer. The tour to Hokkaido runs for
three days and two nights. Naturally the hotels featured in the
package all welcomedogs. So far 60 families have participated,
from young couples to older folks with children.
The ban on pets until now has not followed from legal
restrictions but from the concern that welcoming pets would
drive away other customers. The lack of precedent was also a
factor. But nowadays more Japanese are coming to view their dogs
and cats as full-fledged family members, and they naturally want
to spend their free time with them, whether shopping, eating
out, or traveling. This is undoubtedly the biggest factor behind
the trend. Although exact figures are not known, pet shop and
pet food industry officials concur that the number of
restaurants, hotels, and other shops welcoming pets is
definitely on the rise.
(The above article, edited by Japan Echo Inc., is based on domestic Japanese news sources. It is offered for reference purposes and does not necessarily represent the policy or views of the Japanese Government.)