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While we consider keeping our pets in the house as part of the family, Japanese differentiate between inside pets (shitsunai-ken) and outside ones. Little lap dogs such a Shih Tzu, Maltese, Mini Dax, Yorkies etc: are usually considered inside dogs while anything bigger is kept outside, though the trend is growing to keep all kinds of dogs indoors. Inside dogs are often pampered so much that they resemble toys rather than dogs; their hair is tied up in ribbons, sometimes dyed, they are fed choice snacks, they are carried rather than walked and they spend a lot of time at the beauty salon as well as having an array of fashion accessories to wear when they go out. Conversely, the same family may also keep an outside dog, as a guard dog (ban-ken). This dog is chained to a miserable kennel with no protection from heat or cold, is walked minimally, given cheap dog food, often the water bowl is empty. When the dog is sick it is seldom taken to a vet and only when it's stiff on the end of its chain do the owners called the authorities to take the body away and then they promptly go out and buy a new puppy.
Walk along any street in Japan and you see house after house with chained dogs or dogs locked in tiny cages incredibly surviving as neglected unloved objects. Yet the Japanese think they are doing the right thing and to be told what they are doing is cruel either shocks or angers them. It is more a case of ignorance of a dog's needs than deliberate cruelty and part of the root cause of the problem is the attitude of the authorities and their dictum that all dogs should be chained.
Japanese breeds of dogs, Shiba-inu *, Kishu (boar-hunting dogs) , Kai-ken *, Akita-ken, Ainu-ken and Japanese Spitz nearly all have the characteristics of stoism and gaman (able to endure) that Japanese admire, not surprisingly since they are chained and basically ignored all their life. Years of this treatment have bred into the Japanese dog a dislike of being handled too much. They cannot relax when cuddled as a western dog, they just tense up. They are also more aggressive and territorial than western breeds, more difficult to train, for example, as assistance dogs.
Dog fighting, especially with Tosa dogs, is still prevalent in some rural areas, the location of the fights undisclosed except to those in the know. Tosa dogs are still bred and kept traditionally in Tosa, part of Kochi in south Shikoku. (Shikoku is also famous for bull-fighting and cock-fighting.)
* Both the words inu and ken mean 'dog' in Japanese)
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