How Raccoons Came to Japan
Raccoons are not native to Japan. Nevertheless, a lot of raccoons live there today; in fact there is a major raccoon problem. It is all because of a cuddly animated character from the 1970s: Rascal, the Raccoon!
They rummage through bins, damage ancient temples, attack pets and eat crops and native species: raccoons are quite a nuisance in Japan.
Children's hero
Raccoons were not originally found in Japan. The animals were imported in huge numbers in the 1970s at the request of Japanese children. They were crazy about "Rascal, the Raccoon," a popular animated character based on a children’s book by American author Sterling North that tells stories of his adventures with his adorable baby raccoon "Rascal”. Soon every child wanted their own raccoon and more than 1,500 were imported every month.
Into the wild
Unfortunately, most Japanese people did not read the end of the story. At the end of his book, North sends the raccoon out into the wild so that it can live as it should (in the wild, not among humans). There is a reason for this: raccoons may look cute, but they are definitely not pets. They are destructive and sometimes bite. Many Japanese families found out the hard way. And once the situation at home became impossible, they released their pets into the wild, just like the one in the book. Other than that, many of the raccoons also escaped from captivity.
Invasion
The Japanese government quickly took action and banned importing raccoons and keeping them as pets, but the damage had already been done. The population of released or escaped pets grew at a blistering rate, since they have no natural predators in Japan. The municipality of Tokyo caught 259 raccoons in 2012, but by 2022 the numbers exceeded 1,200. This is only a small part of the raccoon population, which are now seen almost everywhere in Japan.
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