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Japan is the only country in the world in which pets outnumber children. The country has just 17 million children under the age of 16, yet almost 20 million cats and dogs, according to the Japan Pet Food Association. What do you make of those figures?

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What do you make of those figures?

I suspect the writer, Japan Pet Food Association, has pulled the "Japan is the only country in the world in which pets outnumber children" statement out of its backside, probably out of a desire for self-promotion and to claim Japan is uniquely unique in the world.

The USA has 77 million dogs and 59 million cats. There are 74 million people under 18, never mind 16.

13 ( +13 / -0 )

I suspect the writer, Japan Pet Food Association, has pulled the "Japan is the only country in the world in which pets outnumber children" statement out of its backside, probably out of a desire for self-promotion and to claim Japan is uniquely unique in the world.

The USA has 77 million dogs and 59 million cats. There are 74 million people under 18, never mind 16.

Its funny how easy it was to completely disprove the Japan Pet Food Association’s statement like that. Japan then actually has a higher child to pet ratio than the US, and probably a lot of other countries too.

That makes sense given how difficult it is to actually own a pet in this country is. Got a dog or cat? You are automatically disqualified from living in like 95% of rental properties. Good luck with that.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

I doubt anyone is interested, but I had a rough idea about the number of cats and dogs in advance because I remembered it from an article about the environment. The cat and dog population is related to meat consumption, and therefore to any environmental impact of meat production.

I didn't know it, but the UK has 9 million dogs, 8 million cats, and 13 million children, another arrow in the heart of Japan's "uniqueness" here. Add in goldfish, hamsters etc. and there are 51 million pets.

https://www.rspca.org.uk/whatwedo/latest/facts#:~:text=Pet%20population&text=In%20the%20UK%2C%20it's%20estimated,Manufacturers'%20Association%20(PFMA).

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Actually on re-reading the paragraph it’s not clear if it is the Japan Pet Food Association which is making the claim that Japan is unique or if just the numbers come from them. Its possible that first sentence is just a poorly researched, Inaccurate line added by an editor to attract attention. In which case I think the JPFA is owed an apology.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

It’s an interesting sample for a constructed relation of two not correlating categories. You could also say that people in the Netherlands are the tallest because they have the most tulips there, or that countries with lot of sand and sheep produce more terrorists. lol

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Yeah, it's unclear who came up with the "unique in the world" claim. A quick google in Japanese suggests "more pets than children!" is a common clickbait headline in Japan for "OMG so many pets now!" type low-brow sensationalist articles, but the ones I saw didn't bother with international comparisons. It is the "only one in the world" statement that is completely false.

The problem is of course that people believe this data and then use it to justify incorrect assumptions about Japan, e.g., Japanese women now prefer cats (or cuddly toys or Iphones) to babies. Cherry picking data to back something is bad to start with, but far worse when the cherry picked data itself is not even correct. Pet ownership in Japan is actually very low by international standards. Japan's birthrate is low too, but not exceptionally so by First World standards. If anything, Japanese people like babies more than pets (!)

https://getnavi.jp/life/35584/

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Japan is the only country in the world in which pets outnumber children.

Patently not true.

Taiwan - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/06/dogs-in-prams-taiwans-falling-birthrate-sees-pets-outnumbering-children

Brazil - https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/925122.shtml

US - https://k-9superheroesdogwhispering.com/pets-outnumber-children-4-to-1/

Spain - https://www.thelocal.es/20190523/why-spain-now-has-more-pets-that-children-aged-under-15/

5 ( +5 / -0 )

I have more children than cats (3 vs 2) but unfortunately could not exceed total number of pets with 6 more hamsters. Not my fault ;)

I don't like spending for pets outside vet vaccines. My cats when I was young reached 19 and 20 (son and mother).

Kids are my best and most loved long living pets ;)

3 ( +4 / -1 )

I think they should deduct wandering stray cats as they are not pet. And also the dogs that are not welcomed home. They're poor looking at cages.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Pets cannot take care of you when you are old and fragile.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Good point and good Luck with that one @rainyday 12:32.

Its possible that first sentence is just a poorly researched, Inaccurate line added by an editor to attract attention. In which case I think the JPFA is owed an apology.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

this just tells me that people probably find it difficult or are outright discouraged from raising a family and are considering pets instead, simple as that. You don't need to be a sociologist to know that most of advanced and high-performing countries are seeing declining birth rates and a rise in divorce and pet ownership (just google this yourself) since working-age people in these countries tend to focus on their careers and personal lives more than the traditional route of raising kids and actually having more time, energy and money to live life.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

A quick Google search shows several countries with more pets than children, including the US. These kinds of headlines are aimed at perpetuating the usual fears, in this case that Japan will die out if people don't perpetually pump out more babies. (To pay the debts the government has run up - though they don't say that part.) In any case, a quote by any industry association is likely to be self serving.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Japan empire is dying and will be a impoverished, aged , unimportant state within one hundred years

maybe sooner

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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