Tokyo, Japan – While walking his toy poodle in the park near his home in Ikeda, Gifu Prefecture, Shin Ohta had an idea.
“My dog often stops walking during our strolls. I would carry him every time, but his weight of nearly 5kg [11lbs] started to become a real burden,” Ohta told Al Jazeera.
Ohta works in sales for Japan’s oldest baby carrier manufacturer, Lucky Industries, which has produced more than 40 million baby carriers since its founding in 1934.
He has spent his career making baby carriers, but after that walk, he wondered if the same expertise could be applied to pets.
After consulting a veterinarian to ensure the design was viable for dogs, Ohta helped Lucky Industries launch its first line of dog hip carriers in 2022: Nu-i.
Earlier this year, the company joined dozens of other brands at Tokyo’s annual Interpets conference, a showcase of Japan’s rapidly growing pet care market.
During the first weekend of April, stalls lined the walls of the Big Sight convention centre, selling everything from walk-in pet dryers to the latest organic cat treats.
Few of the pet owners attending the event had their four-legged friend on a leash, instead ferrying them to and fro in well-decorated pet strollers, or the doggy equivalent of baby slings.
Pets in Japan now outnumber children under 15 by more than 2 million. According to market intelligence company Euromonitor, the country’s pet care market was worth 880 billion yen ($5.4bn) in 2025, up from 689.6 billion yen ($4.2bn) in 2020.
As Japan’s birthrate continues to fall and the population of children shrinks, companies that once built their businesses on babies, selling nappies, slings, and strollers, are increasingly turning their attention to pets.
Unicharm, a Tokyo-based company known for feminine hygiene products and disposable diapers, expanded into pet diapers in 2001. Its pet care division now has a profit margin of 15.4 percent, higher than personal care’s 10.7 percent.
Lucky Industries CEO Hiroyuki Higuchi said, “In Japan, dogs are seen as babies, as part of the family. Just like many Japanese carry their babies in slings or carriers, so can dog owners.”
Barbara Holthus, a sociologist and director of the German Institute of Japan Studies, noted that pet humanization is a growing trend. “A pet can also replace a partner. After a divorce, people sometimes get pets. After someone gets widowed, they get a pet,” she said.
Source: www.aljazeera.com