Japan - Dog breeds list

Japan is an island nation located on the eastern edge of Asia and is surrounded by the Sea of Japan to the East and the Pacific Ocean to the West. Being an archipelago it has 6.852 islands. The four main islands are Hakkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu which together form about 97% of Japan. There are over 127 million people living in Japan making it the tenth most populated country in the World.

There are five dog breeds that originate in Japan. Two of them were specially bred for hunting: the Shiba-Inu and the Akita Inu. Both of them are amazing and very popular breeds. The Akita-Inu is considered the national symbol of the country and the Shiba-Inu is considered one of the oldest breeds still in existence, remaining unchanged for 1800 years. Having a passion for small dog breeds the Japanese also created 2 amazing companion dog breeds: the Japanese Spitz and the Japanese Chin. The Japanese Chin was so small that could actually be carried in the kimono sleeves. The fifth breed that was developed in Japan is the Tosa-Inu a large sized dog with an incredible courage and fighting strength.