Though both Akita Inus and Shiba Inus originated in Japan, and people do notice the similarity between them, there are ...

The Japanese Dog Preservation Society, Nihon-ken Hozonkai, was created to maintain and preserve six specific native Japanese dog breeds. This organization is similar to the American Kennel Club (AKC) ...

Maya the Akita Inu dog sat outside the Spanish hospital while her owner recovered for emergency surgery Kelli Bender is the Pets Editor at PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2013. Her ...

The hit movie Hachi: A Dog’s Tale (2009), starring Richard Gere, sparked an overseas boom in Akita-inu. This helped raise the global total to 6,671 by 2017, but the decline in Japan continues.

To celebrate the year of the dog in 2018, this article presents one of Japan’s most famous breeds, the Akita-inu. We talk to Nakagawa Jitarō, a specialist breeder with over 50 years of experience.