Today, the animals are found in almost all parts of the country. Rascal the Raccoon , a 1977 anime, inspired many families to want a pet raccoon. It surveyed 47 prefectural governments and 366 municipal governments in 2012 and 2013.
Can a cute cartoon change the wildlife of a country? In Japan, it did. Takaaki Suzuki and Tohru Ikeda, in a Wildlife Research study , examined local government responses to the raccoon invasion. The results show how difficult the problem is to solve..
Raccoons are not native to Japan and are considered an invasive species. They breed fast and adapt quickly, which has helped them spread. Many of the animals are in the hilly parts of the western edge of Tokyo. The raccoon is also designated as an invasive alien species in the Invasive Alien Species Act of Japan . Local governments face a number of roadblocks. Officials cited shortages of control staff, funding, and expertise. Many also had no clear facts on how many raccoons lived in their area. In some places, strong control early in an invasion has worked. But very few areas have reduced raccoon numbers in the long term. At the time of that study, no raccoon population in Japan had been eradicated.
Reports of raccoon damage now come from almost all of Japan’s 47 prefectures.
