Pet parents strike again

Tokyo is the land of pet parents - people who treat their pets less like animals and more like their own offspring. Meet Leon the dog. We saw Leon this weekend being held by his pet parent. Leon was sporting pretty cool goggles to shade his eyes, because we all know dogs hate the sunlight.

Leon's owner told me somewhat defensively that the glasses were from the States - as if to tell me 'back off American, these are from YOUR country.' I was then informed that Leon has some allergies. Yeah, poor Leon, surrounded all day by pet dander. If true, where is the doggie surgical face mask?

Look it might be entirely plausible that Leon has allergies, but come on, what's with the Lilo & Stitch hoodie? Leon is sooo EMO. This screams raving pet parent trying to make a fashion statement.

Pet Parents

There are studies that show the Japanese population could be cut in half by the end of the century. While I could get into a serious discussion behind the reasons for the lower birth rate and its socio-economic end game, I won't. I want to talk about something infinitely more trivial - a frivolous outgrowth of a latent need to parent something, anything - pet parenting.

To set the stage, here are some statistics: there are more than 23 million pet dogs and cats in Japan. That's 5 million pets MORE than there are children under 15 in all of Japan (18 million kids). Pets are the new millenium's children.

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence. I am hard pressed to find pictures of people's families or kids at the office, but there sure are tons of pictures of people's cats.

Small dogs and older dogs are usually carried around town in baby strollers.

We've seen dogs dressed up in hats, sunglasses, sweaters, long-johns with the button-flap over the bottom, etc.

Then there are articles from MSNBC.com and Nikkei Weekly that outline a variety of services that pet parents spend on their pets, including: accupuncture and physical therapy for aging dogs, spa treatments and aromatherapy, funeral services including joint pet/master gravesites, matchmaking parties and doggie wedding services that can cost upwards to $3,000. I wish I were making this up. But I am not.

The video, while all in Japanese, shows one of these wedding ceremonies, including the ceremony, cutting the cake, photo session, throwing flowers at the happy couple and an interview with a girl who is throwing this party in hopes that her future wedding will be this, uh, nice.

Japanese Dog Wedding