They are less expensive than children, but can be dressed up in the latest and most expensive brand name designer clothes. Exclusive boutiques cater both to the vanity of the owners and the indifference of the adored pets.
They are walked, carried, taken for runs, and carted around in specially designed baby carriages with the proud 'parents' posing for photographs and subjecting themselves to the oohs and aahs normally reserved for perfectly indifferent and nondescript babies.
Japan's birthrate is declining, not too many couples can afford bringing up baby. EVERYTHING is expensive here, even for Westeners, who are relatively used to high cost of living. So dogs fill the emotional vacuum for a lot of young couples.
Small is beautiful, as most of these little darlings have to share a minute living space with their owners, who live mostly in miniscule apartments. So most pets are of the miniature breeds, but without exception with a pedigree as long as the Japanese Emperor's.
The girl dogs quite often wear ribbons or flowers in their ear hair (as is the case with the most 'in' canine, the low slung dachshund). In one of the photos we are looking at dachshund twins (boy and girl) who have matching designer togs, but one with a skirt and one with pants. Some wear hats, and some have hoodies with rabbit ears. Some have fashionably tinted tail fur. Some owners carry baby bottles filled with water. How on earth those creatures are drinking from them is a mystery to me. Some carry the pets in shoulder bags. How the animals get their exercise is unknown - but maybe they go to designer doggie gyms. Overall the dogs are spoilt rotten, loved with devotion, and treated better than kids.
Some peole have trendily dressed rabbits on a leash...
All the aninals look terribly self-important and extremely pleased with themselves.
The owners are no less 'cool', most following the latest fashion trends of Japan, who has taken over the fashion leadership from Paris (and I can see why).
I ran into a whole gaggle of pram pushing girls, thinking that they had a little baby airing. But no, each of the many prams contained one or two nattily dressed dogs.
Go figure...
