The Growing Pet Care Market | ZENOAQ [Nippon Zenyaku Kogyo Co., Ltd.]

The pet care business in Japan is currently growing rapidly. According to a survey of Japanese households, 39.4percent are currently living with pets ranging from goldfish to birds to dogs and cats. Furthermore, the survey reveals that 66.8 percent of the households would like to live with pets in the future, be it a continuation of their current situation or the acquisition of a new pet. Only 33.2 percent answered that they would not want to live with a pet animal. These statistics show that the need for goods and services in this area is certainly growing rapidly. How large, then, is the market today? The size of the total market in monetary terms is approximately 10 trillion yen.
Of this, the pet food industry accounts for about 2.8 trillion, other pet supplies, about 1.6 trillion, and related services about 6.9 trillion yen. This is indeed a huge market and needless to say, an ever widening one. The pet food market steadily approaching the 3 trillion yen mark can be divided into 3 main categories. 53 percent goes to dogs, 40 percent to cats, and 7 percent to other animals. Dogs are by far the holders of the largest market share. According to the Japan Kennel Club current trends in dog keeping have veered towards the acquisition of smaller breeds. Nearly 70 percent of the purebred dogs kept as pets are breeds under 10 kg in body weight. The 2009 JKC registration numbers show that the top breed in Japan today in terms of popularity is the toy poodle.
This is followed by Chihuahuas in second place, miniature Dachshunds in third place, and Pomeranians coming into fourth place. Of the top 10 breeds in the JKC registry, the largest breed by body size is the Shiba inu......which as we all know is certainly not a giant breed! Perhaps it is because of this particular trend that the percentage of indoor dogs has gone up considerably in recent years. The current percentage of dogs kept mainly indoors according to a survey conducted at the end of 2009 by the pet food industry association is 73 percent. More dogs in Japan are now truly "living with " their families. The market for these family members is now becoming widely diversified. For example, the auto manufacturer Honda has a website named "HondaDog". The site introduces models that are "dog ?friendly", with special features such as wider doors and lower bodies. Various accessories such as pet carriers and pet mats are introduced as well. Newly opened hobby classes cover a wide range of topics including crafting original leather collars for our pet dogs , cooking for your pet, and sewing for your pet. There is now a Japanese association of dog yoga classes......how far will all of this go?
We cannot predict the future course of pet keeping in this country but it is imperative that we also not overlook the negative aspects of this boom. Official statistics on complaints/trouble in apartment houses show that complaints concerning pet issues is no small matter. In terms of the number of complaints it ranks in second place after complaints concerning issues on noise.
The pet industry has certainly been very creative in showing pet owners how to use their yen in expressing their love for their pets...now it is time for them to start thinking about ways to enhance responsibility.

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