It seems that, although people in Japan seem to love their pets, they usually do not have more than one “big” pet per household. Is it true, and if so what’s the cause?
I thought about a few possible reasons, but I imagine it might be due to other cultural or practical reasons I’m not aware of?
Here are the possible causes I’ve thought about:
– Expensive pet ownership: Not sure if that’s the case in Japan, but I know that in some country you have to pay stip pet licenses and provide your pets with very good living conditions
– Small houses and apartments: Are habitations to small to comfortably have more than one pet?
– Social acceptance: I feel that here in the US, people might start judging you if you have more than 3 cats for example. Is the limit just lower in Japan and having more that one or two pets make you look a bit off?
– Less pet-friendly housing: my understanding is that it’s really hard to find a place to rent in Japan when you have several pets. Is there anything in particular that makes it more risky to rent to people with pets in Japan compared to the US, for example?
– Traditional house inadapted to pet ownership? Just thought of this one, so it could be very stupid, but I’m wondering if tatamis and traditional Japanese house furnishing (e.g. paper screens) are maybe harder to keep clean with pets around? And that maybe people have been less likely to have indoor pets for this reason?
Please share your thoughts!
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/10cwwtb/do_japanese_people_rarely_have_multiple_pets_per/
4 comments
It’s not true. We have two dogs, as do others in this neighborhood. The people with only one pet are more likely apartment dwellers.
[There you go](https://petfood.or.jp/data/chart2021/3.pdf) for some detailed figures about this topic. Roughly 10% of households have a dog (and the average is 1.04 dog per household having a dog), and less than 1% has a cat (roughly same number of cat per household that has a cat).
About the [why](https://petfood.or.jp/topics/img/211223.pdf) don’t people have more, [there you go](https://petfood.or.jp/topics/img/211223.pdf).
* Can’t travel
* Not possible to leave alone
* Costs a lot of money
* Sad when they die
* Forbidden to own in collective residences
All in all, few people have pets (much fewer than in other countries), and overall when they have one they have only one.
Most of us live in small property and tend to spend more time and money on our pets, therefore fewer pets per owner on average
Space.